Mr Happy near the top of the thread made this comment:

I queried that Wassailing's not part of tradition in this area & there's no significant apple orchards hereabouts to respond to the coaxing effect of the Wassail

I was somewhat puzzled by this as many of the Wassailing songs mention ale and do not mention apples or cider, so I did a hunt round the internet and this, in summary was some of my findings:

The word "Wassail" comes from Old English "Waes Hael" which means "Be well". The conventional response was "drinc hael" (drink well).

Wassailing originated from the lord of the manor wishing his tenants well at the beginning of the year and the tradition came to be associated with twelth night (The end of the Yuletide celebrations and the start of the new farming year). In the old, Julian, calendar this was 17 January.

Wassailing came to involve people going from house to house carrying a wassail cup of spiced ale and wishing the residents well. In return the residents would give drink, food & money to the wassailers.

Apple tree wassailing was a specific form of wassailing, largely confined to the cider producing counties of South West England and involved going round the orchards pouring cider into the roots of the apple trees to encourage them to fruit in the coming year.

So wassailing was not necessarily about cider or blessing apple trees, though it could be in some parts of the country.