Fruit trees usually give fruit only after going through an inactive period when their leaves fall during cold months , but some apple trees can be fooled into believing they have gone through a change of season .
To fool the trees , you just pull off the leaves . In a few weeks new leaves appear , and the trees produce flowers which later develop into apples .
Indian farmers in the Honduran mountains earn about four hundred dollars a year from their traditional crops . It was thought that farmers could increase their yearly earnings by growing apples . An American fruit farmer agreed to provide the trees . He even took them to the central American country and carried them into the mountains . There he showed farmers how to plant and care for the young apple trees . The farmers took about one thousand apple trees to Honduras in 1983 . Five years later there were twelve thousand apple trees there .
About two hundred apple trees are planted on one hectare of land . Each tree produces from two hundred to five hundred apples . That means a farmer can produce about sixty thousand apples on one hectare of land . For some reason Honduran farmers don't have to remove the leaves to make the apple trees produce fruit . Flowers and fruit are growing at the same time .
Apples now sell for about fifteen cents each . If the project is successful , Honduran apple farmers may earn at least nine thousand dollars a year .