RHS Growing Apple Trees

Selecting your cultivar With more than 3,000 cultivars grown in the UK, where do you start? Here are some sure-fire winners, all with the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) for plants that perform. ® Growing Cultivar Type Description Harvest / use 1 ‘Discovery’ D Excellent medium- Pick mid-Aug; (1949) sized fruit. Crisp use Aug–Sept. and juicy with a Best eaten fresh hint of strawberry from tree apple 1 2 ‘James Grieve’ D/C Crisp, juicy and Pick early Sept; 6 (1890) tangy. Excellent use Sept–Oct flavour 3 ‘Scrumptious’ D Bright red fruit. Pick early Sept trees (1980) Aromatic, crisp, and eat fresh sweet flavour from tree 4 ‘Charles Ross’ D/C Sweet-flavoured Pick early Sept; 2 (1890) eater which use Oct–Dec 7 bakes well 5 ‘Sunset’ D Crisp, juicy, Cox- Pick late Sept; (1933) like flavour but use Oct–Dec easier to grow 6 ‘Kidd’s Orange D Pillar-box red fruit. Pick early Oct; 3 Red’ (1924) Rich, aromatic use Nov–Jan 8 flavour 7 ‘Lane’s Prince C Good flavour. Cooks Pick early Oct; Albert’ (1840) to a sharp lemon- use Dec–Mar coloured puree 8 ‘Ashmead’s D Juicy, refreshing, Pick mid-Oct; 4 Kernel’ (1700) aromatic flavour use Dec–Feb 9 9 ‘Red Falstaff’ D Refreshing, sweet, Pick mid-Oct; (1980) crisp and juicy use Oct–Dec 10 ‘Dummellor’s C Good flavour. Cooks Pick mid-Oct; Seedling’ (1819) to a sharp cream- use Nov–Mar 5 coloured puree 10 A pocket guide to growing KEY the UK’s most popular fruit D Dessert apples are sweet and juicy. Some are eaten fresh from the tree. Others will keep for longer. C Cooking apples are sharp. D/C Dual purpose apples can be used as eaters or for cooking. Dates in brackets after names give the approximate year the cultivar was bred. rhs.org.uk/advice All the cultivars shown above are available from Wisley Plant Centre (rhs.org.uk/wisleyplantcentre). All images © RHS except ‘Charles Ross’ © National Fruit Collection, Brogdale. RHS Registered Charity No: 222879 / SC038262 Six easy steps to perfect apple trees 2 Growing fruit trees can seem complicated but follow these Buy two simple steps to successfully grow your own apples. different apples Apples need pollination from another cultivar (variety) to fruit well. Keep it simple – choose 1 apples from our selection on 3 Choosing an the back page, which will Select a rootstock all pollinate each apple to grow other Apples are grafted on specially selected rootstocks which determine That’s one you like the taste how big they get. For small trees of – not a supermarket (up to 3m) in pots or the open apple, but something ground, choose apples on special rootstock M26 Don’t Thin out shoots where they’re close together stop there Once you’ve succeeded with two, grow more. After all, in the UK alone, there are well over 3,000 cultivars to choose B Second winter onwards from Shorten very long shoots to 6 an outward-facing bud and 4 B remove any which are crossing Pruning or rubbing. your trees Buy bush trees Apples need pruning for a good Apples can be grown as trees, A First winter shape and plenty of fruit. Keep it bushes, cordons, fans, espaliers Shorten the longest simple and buy a two-year-old and step-overs. Keep it simple shoots by half to open-centred bush. This will 5 and grow a bush tree (a small an outward-facing already be partly trained Growing tree on a short trunk) bud and remove any shoots from the lower A your trees trunk. (Pruning points are shown in red.) Plant your apples either in the ground in well-prepared soil (choose a sunny spot) or in containers with John Innes No. 3 potting 88 For more advice on growing and pruning apple trees, search on apples at rhs.org.uk compost.

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