Newly-ish planted 6-in-1 apple tree. Are these fruits-to-be and should I trim them off for now? +Watering tips?
Tree was bought from a nearby nursery and planted ~2 weeks ago(had to do it ourselves because the nursery couldn't schedule planting until July).
Been sorting out drip hoses(tree is ~100 from spigot and somewhat uphill) and mulch when I noticed what I'm guessing are fruits starting to grow on some of the branches.
Since it's unlikely that this tree became established in such a short time, I'm assuming I should snip these off so the tree can focus on growing all of itself instead of growing apples?
Would also appreciate some advice on how much water to give to "Frank" while we're in Zone 5.
The drip hose is 1/2" with the emitters spaced 18 inches apart and is claimed to dispense 0.9gal/hour.
The ring of hose I set up comes out to 9 or 10 emitters around the tree so I would assume it would dispense ~9 gallons of water per hour?
Trunk is 2" wide at most, root ball was ~20" wide so we dug a 60" wide hole and refilled with a mix of new/old dirt(two more bags of mulch were put down after pics were taken).
Should I water Frank twice a day for 30 minutes? Once for an hour? Something else? I don't want to drown Frank but I also don't want him to dry out.