It’s easy as apple pie

Growing apple trees in the garden successfully doesn’t require a large scale orchard, Charlie Wilkins reports

The fruit of a mini cox apple tree which grows to 1.5m to 2m high.

A young Coronet apple tree in a garden situation. Note its height, shape and maturing fruits.

Sometimes, it’s easy to forget what an admirable place an orchard is. But there aren’t many left around — like last year’s snow and this year’s snowdrops, orchards in general have disappeared from the countryside. Even the growing of apple trees has taken a dramatic dip in popularity. Householders nowadays are just not interested in growing apples.

And neither are schools willing to teach top fruit management, or the delights of bee keeping. Some rightly argue that apple trees grow too big and with limited garden space nowadays the exercise would be pointless.

But many gardeners seem to be unaware of the fact that there are varieties available today which can be grown in the tiniest of spaces including pots and containers. So picture part of your back garden come September. Imagine walking towards your favourite seating area then suddenly noticing a miniature tree simply laden with sparkling red apples.

What a surprise that would be — but it could be reality. In garden centres now there’s a wonderful dwarf variety of apple trees sold as ‘Coronet’ which is bound to please.

Coronet was developed to fill a specific need. It was created especially for small spaces and small gardens and it remains miniature permanently, crops immediately, and needs no complicated or drastic pruning regimes. It may be grown in good garden soil or in a fancy container (similarly filled) to impress visitors and supply the household needs.

Stood on the patio or apartment balcony a couple of trees would make a feature in their own right.

Coronets are initially grafted and grown on dwarf rootstock M27 — the most dwarfing available. This produces a small early, reliable cropping tree. All are kept on inspection beds in the nursery for five years before being distributed to garden outlets.

At this time they are supplied as semi-mature trees complete with their complement of fruit buds for the current year.

Once planted in the garden Coronets will grow very little. When mature the height of the head will not exceed 1.5m (5ft) and the width 1m (3ft). From this you can see that they may be sited and grown in the smallest garden and if you buy one this month it will begin cropping immediately. In other words; purchase a pair of trees in spring, and you’ll pick the fruit this autumn.

PRUNING: Coronets are best left un-pruned. Only the occasional broken shoot needs removal.

CONTAINERS; Use tubs and pots with a capacity of at least 25 litres. In these, on patios and balconies, they should remain productive for 15 or more years.

VARIETIES; ‘Solo’ varieties are self-fertile; they set fruit without a partner, one tree is adequate in the garden. Two compatible trees are needed otherwise.

‘Family’ is two varieties on the one tree. Both types are fully established with good branch structures and will pollinate one another. ‘Family’ trees make popular gifts.

AVAILABILITY; Coronets are available from most garden centres.