Agricultural management systems are found at the intersection between human societies and environmental dynamics. Traditional apple orchards are fruit production systems that were developed in Eurasia and transferred to many other regions around the world including a wide range of temperate to subtropical climates. We interviewed 255 long-term (20 years) apple orchard managers in nine European countries and seven other countries that were former colonies. Patterns and types of management observations were compiled to illustrate descriptive aspects of orchard manager's thinking. Observations and adaptive responses by orchard managers seem to share similarities that go beyond cultural and large-scale environmental differences. Orchard management systems appear to be adaptive responses by traditional orchardists not only for local environments but also for success in unknown, newly encountered environments and therefore might be expected to cope with climate change and functionally adapt to ecosystem variation due to that change.