Plant Profiles: Apples

Isn't she lovely? The last Fiesta apple ripe for picking in the large pot on my patio today

Every October I've written about apples on Veg Plotting, so it's a pleasure to feature them as my Plant Profile this month.

At first, I was quite daunted about growing apples. There are loads of varieties to choose from, some very off putting root stock names to get to grips with and a whole host of things that can go wrong in the pests and disease line. And then there's the pruning...

But oh, there is such beauty to be found in an apple tree. There's deliciously frothy blossom in the spring and a rich variety in the fruit. If I could just pick one tree for my garden, it would have to be an apple.

And yes, you can have just one apple tree in your garden as some of them are self-fertile, though having more than one in the same or adjacent pollination group is even better for ensuring plenty of fruit. Amongst the self-fertile possibilities is the ever popular Cox's Orange Pippin, alongside the Scrumptious, Falstaff and Red Windsor varieties I grow.

October is the main picking month here at VP Gardens, though growing Discovery means I've actually been picking since late August. In my bowl this week there are Scrumptious, Sunset, Kidd's Orange Red, Princesse (the russet one) and Spartan. Note I didn't buy my special apple bowl, it was one of the worldly goods endowed by NAH when I married him.

I'm set to apply greasebands soon to protect my trees from winter moth. Apart from that and putting out codling moth traps in May plus some aphid squishing, I must admit I've been pretty relaxed about pest and disease care so far (*touches wood and crosses fingers*). I've chosen trees which are happy for my allotment and garden's soil/aspect so that goes a long way to keeping them healthy.

A trick I've adopted for my trained and potted trees is to bury a short piece of pipe alongside them. This allows me to water directly to the roots during very dry weather. I'm applying the principle that 'a pint at the roots is worth a gallon on the ground' i.e. the tree is encouraged to put down a good deep root structure which will help it through periods of drought. It's worked thus far and also means the task of watering during dry spells is kept to a minimum.

The trees are about to enter their winter dormancy so now is a good time to research and order the best apple tree(s) to grace your garden or allotment. So what are you waiting for?

Here's a great idea I saw in the Long Walk at Stockton Bury Gardens last month. How about growing a row
of dwarf rootstock apple trees as a hedge? Fits neatly in a small garden and is more productive than stepovers.

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Further notes

It's strange to think that something we think of as quintessentially English as an apple actually originated from the remote mountains of Central Asia. Here the wild ancestor - Malus sieversii - of our apple, Malus domestica is still found today.

It seems that apples can be added to the list of things the Romans did for us.

To blossom well (and in turn fruit) most apple trees need a minimum chill requirement of 400-1,000 hours of temperatures just above freezing over the winter period in order to break winter dormancy.

This is why climate change is of some concern for our apple trees. There are some varieties which require a lot less (e.g. Anna, 100-200 hours), so it is likely the varieties we grow will change, not that apples will disappear entirely.

Rootstock numbering comes with an M (Malling) or MM (Malling/Merton) prefix which refers to the location where they were developed (East Malling Research or East Malling/John Innes Institute respectively). Thousands were developed initially, but there are just a few left in common use today.

Rootstock choice determines how tall the tree will grow and is important to get right for success in the garden.

For pots and container growing, M26 (dwarfing) is the rootstock to look out for. Check if the tree has been formative pruned before buying. I pruned my potted tree after planting and then found out I didn't need to and had cut away half of its potential.

Other useful rootstocks are MM106 (semi-dwarfing - the most popular rootstock used), which is good for a wide variety of purposes, and M9 (dwarfing) is a good choice for small gardens.

As well as being grown as the usual kind of tree, apples can be trained into all kinds of forms e.g. espalier, cordons, pyramids, goblets, over arches etc. I'm having a go at cordon and arch growing on the allotment. It's best to google any particular form you're interested in as I haven't found an overall introductory guide online.

And finally, there are three basic types of apple - dessert, cooking and cider. Dessert is the sweetest and cider the most astringent. There are also dual-purpose varieties e.g. the James Grieve I grow is suitable as a cooking apple when picked early, then a dessert apple later in the season.
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You may also like:

• My collection of suggestions and recipes for what to do with all those windfalls
• A brief look at the history of the Bramley apple
• Find out about the apples which originate from Wiltshire
• Late summer pruning the Waterperry garden way
• A brief look at greasebands and codling moth traps
• An explanation of June drop, nature's way of thinning the crop
• And just so you don't miss any of my enthusiasm, here's all the posts I've written about apples on Veg Plotting.

Further references

• RHS general notes on the cultivation of apples
• Online directory of apple varieties
• List of self-fertile apples
• RHS list of apples by pollination group (PDF). NB there may be enough trees growing nearby (including crab apples) to ensure pollination of your own
• RHS guide to rootstocks
• RHS guide to summer pruning for apples and pears - only trained forms like the cordons I grow on the allotment need this form of pruning
• RHS guide to winter pruning - omit this at your peril if you grow bush or standard trees. This pruning is what encourages the tree to bear fruit
• What to do if your tree becomes biennial bearing
• RHS Apple tree problems FAQS - see also this handy fruit tree symptom guide from Ken Muir
• Wikipedia's guide to chilling requirements, plus a great botany forum discussion on the topic on Gardenweb

Apples form a major component of the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, Kent.

Finally there's my favourite book on apples, The New Book of Apples by apple guru Joan Morgan (and Alison Richards). This would feature in my Desert Island list of gardening books.
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Plant Profiles is sponsored by Whitehall Garden Centre.

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