How Many Apples (and Trees) for a Gallon of Cider
It takes about 14 to 16 pounds of apples to press a gallon of cider on a good press, and 20 pounds or more on a small hand press. In bushels, that's about 3 to 3.5 gallons per bushel on a good press and closer to 2 gallons on a home screw press.
Those figures come from extension cider guides, not guesses: UC Cooperative Extension gives 13 to 16 lb of fruit per gallon (125 to 150 gallons per ton), the University of Tennessee says a bushel "should yield about 3 to 3 1/2 gallons" and that small hand-cranked presses yield less, and WSU Extension counts 30 to 40 apples per gallon. A home cider maker at the Low Tech Institute got about 2 gallons per bushel on a screw press.
How many apples to make 5 gallons of cider?
About 70 to 80 pounds of apples on a good press (14 to 16 lb a gallon), or 100 pounds or more on a small hand press. That's roughly 150 to 200 average apples (WSU's 30 to 40 a gallon), or about two 40 lb bushels on a good press and two and a half on a hand press.
How many bushels of apples does it take to make a gallon of cider?
About a third of a bushel. A bushel of apples yields about 3 to 3.5 gallons on average (University of Tennessee), so one gallon takes 0.29 to 0.33 bushel. Bushels are confusing because they're measured by volume and sold by weight: USDA's market bushel or carton of apples is about 40 pounds, and the legal bushel is 48 pounds in some states (Rhode Island's statute says so outright).
- 40 lb bushel at 14 to 16 lb a gallon: about 2.5 to 2.9 gallons.
- 48 lb bushel at 14 to 16 lb a gallon: about 3 to 3.4 gallons.
- Either bushel on a hand press at 20 lb a gallon: about 2 to 2.4 gallons.
How many apple trees to make cider?
One mature, healthy apple tree in full production gives enough fruit for about 16 gallons of juice a year by our rule of thumb (about 250 lb of fruit at 6.5 gallons per 100 lb). Crabs give less juice per tree because the fruit is small and more of it is skin and core. These are the yields our hard cider calculator assumes; change them there to match your trees and your press.
| Juice a year | Apple trees | Applecrab trees | Crabapple trees | Pear trees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 gallons | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 25 gallons | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 50 gallons | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 100 gallons | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 |
Our rule of thumb, per mature tree in full production: apples about 16 gallons, applecrabs 12, crabs 11, pears 14. Young trees, dwarfing rootstocks and short-season years give less; a big standard tree in a good year gives more. Zone doesn't change these numbers much, but it changes which trees you can plant, so start with trees rated for your winters.
How many cider apple trees per acre?
It depends on rootstock more than anything. Our full size trees on Dolgo or Malus baccata roots grow about 20 to 30 feet tall unpruned and need room to match; on Bud 118 they're semi-dwarf in our dry Montana soils, about 12 to 18 feet, and we plant those about 15 feet apart. An acre is 43,560 square feet, so semi-dwarf trees at 15 by 15 feet come to about 190 trees an acre, and full size trees at 25 by 25 feet about 70. Most backyard cider makers need far less than that: work out your gallons first, then the trees, then the spacing.
A note on crabs
Crabs take more picking per gallon because the fruit is small, but you rarely need much crab juice: 10 to 25% of a blend is typical, and the very sour ones go in at 5 to 10%. See the crabapples for cider page for which ones to plant.
Next steps
Pick the best apples for cider to plant for your zone, then shop our cider apple trees.
Sources
- Paul Vossen, UC Cooperative Extension, Cider Goes Trendy
- University of Tennessee Extension SP307, Home Apple Cider Production (rev. 1999)
- WSU Extension Skagit County, Hard Cider Making (2023)
- Low Tech Institute, Pressing cider part II (2017)
- USDA ERS, Weights, Measures, and Conversion Factors for Agricultural Commodities (AH-697, 1992)
- Rhode Island General Laws 47-4-2 (a bushel of apples shall weigh 48 pounds)