Apples are falling down
PHP, 230 bytes



I've added the first two newlines for readibility.

function($l){for($y=count($l);$y&gt;=0;$f[]="$a|   |$a")$a=str_repeat($y--?$w=' ':'-',99);
foreach($l as$x){for($x+=101,$s=$y=0;!$s;$b[$x]!=$w?$b[$x+1]!=$w?$b[$x-1]!=$w?$s=1:--$x
:++$x:0)$b=$f[$y++];$f[$y-2][$x]=a;}echo join('
',$f);};


Ideone

Here is the ungolfed version:

function drawApples(array $listStartX)
{
    $field = [];
    $maximalHeight = count($listStartX);
    for ($y = $maximalHeight; $y &gt;= 0; --$y)
    {
        $line = str_repeat($y &gt; 0 ? ' ' : '-', 98);
        $field[] = $line .'|   |'. $line;
    }

    foreach ($listStartX as $x)
    {
        $x += 100;
        for ($y = 0; true; ++$y)
        {
            if ($field[$y][$x] === ' ') {
                continue;
            }

            if ($field[$y][$x + 1] === ' ') {
                ++$x;
                continue;
            }

            if ($field[$y][$x - 1] === ' ') {
                --$x;
                continue;
            }

            $field[$y - 1][$x] = 'a';
            break;
        }
    }

    echo implode("\n", $field);
}