Apple Trees for Sale UK: Buying Guide

How to Choose an Apple Tree the Easy Way

If you know nothing about apple trees and just want to buy an apple tree online, choose a potted, self-fertile variety on a rootstock that suits your garden size. For many average UK gardens, that usually means M26 for a smaller tree, or MM106 for a stronger garden tree. Once established, they are relatively low-maintenance. Every apple tree listed on Trees Online has its rootstock displayed in the options panel.

If you just want to go straight ahead and buy an easy-to-grow apple tree online, then here are our suggestions.

Most Popular Apple Trees to Buy

If you want the quick route, choose from the top five lists below. They give you the strongest options by apple type without turning the page into a fruit catalogue.

Top 5 Self-Fertile Eating Apple Trees

• Red Falstaff - self-fertile, disease resistant, juicy, stores well and gives heavy crops.
• Red Windsor - self-fertile, compact, disease resistant, patio-friendly and a good pollinator.
• Scrumptious - self-fertile, disease resistant, popular, high yielding and suitable for containers.
• Red Devil - self-fertile, red-fleshed, strawberry-flavoured, disease resistant and useful for juicing.
• Saturn - self-fertile, crisp, juicy, disease resistant and a good pollinator.

Top 5 Non-Self-Fertile Eating Apple Trees

• Discovery - early dessert apple, crisp, juicy, strawberry-flavoured and disease resistant.
• Katy - large cropping, firm, disease resistant, useful for juicing and a good pollinator.
• Laxton’s Superb - traditional sweet apple with hardy growth and Cox-like flavour.
• Fiesta / Red Pippin - sweet, crisp, Cox-style apple with large crops and good northern UK suitability.
• Lord Lambourne - reliable cropper with sweet, aromatic flavour and a hint of strawberry.

Top 5 Russet Apple Trees

• Egremont Russet - classic russet apple with sweet, firm, nutty flavour.
• Herefordshire Russet - russet dessert apple with rich Cox-style flavour, large crops and good keeping.
• Ashmead’s Kernel - intense sweet-sharp flavour, firm flesh, good keeping and disease resistance.
• Ribston Pippin - traditional rich-flavoured russet-style dessert apple.
• Rosemary Russet - russet dessert apple with strong sweet-sharp flavour.

Top 5 Cooking Apple Trees

• Bramley 20 - compact Bramley type, triploid, heavy cropping and useful for juicing.
• Bramley’s Seedling - famous triploid cooking apple with strong acidic flavour and juicing use.
• Grenadier - early cooking apple, compact, easy to grow and cooks to a sharp purée.
• Reverend W. Wilks - early cooker with very large fruit, compact growth and light lemon purée.
• Newton Wonder - cooking and eating apple, late keeping, good for juicing and recognised with an RHS award.

Top 5 Dual-Purpose Apple Trees

• James Grieve - self-fertile, reliable, popular, crisp and useful for eating or cooking.
• Charles Ross - self-fertile, easy to grow, good for eating and cooking, and suitable for northern areas.
• Bountiful - disease resistant, large cropping and useful for eating or cooking.
• Blenheim Orange - triploid, good for eating, storing and cooking, with large nutty apples.
• Howgate Wonder - large, sweet, juicy apple useful for cooking and eating.

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Stepping Into The Dark Side of Buying an Apple Tree Online

If you are still confuddled, keep reading. Below are the options explained and things you need to know before making a very informed decision.

Apple Pollination: When the pollen of one apple tree flower is put inside another apple tree flower of a different variety to start the process of growing apples.

Bare Root Apple Trees vs Potted Apple Trees: Bare root is cheaper and the one-year option means you can train the tree to any shape or form you wish. Only available November to March when the tree is dormant, i.e. when the tree has dropped its leaves. Small risk of increased failure rate in the hands of the new gardener. Potted apple trees can usually be planted for much of the year, if the ground is not frozen, waterlogged or extremely dry, and suit the beginner more.

Apple Type:
eating/dessert apples are for fresh eating,
cooking apples are for pies and crumbles. They are usually sour, i.e. more acidic, and give you quite the suck face if you bite into one. They cook well for pies, crumbles, sauces and baking.
dual-purpose apples can do both,
crab apples are mainly grown for blossom, fruit colour, wildlife and pollination support but can be used for jellies.

Pollination:
Self-fertile: Self-fertile apple trees can produce fruit without another apple tree nearby. They can still crop better with a compatible apple or crab apple close by. The easiest option to choose.

Non-self-fertile: These apple trees require the pollen of another apple or crab apple tree nearby, 18m or less is the best distance. The flowers of both trees need to be open at the same time for pollination to occur to let the bee's and other buzzies do their thing and take pollen from one apple tree blossom to the other.

Apple blossom times are indicated by a number e.g. C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 and each represents around a two week flowering period. All apple trees have this number. Optimal results come from having two apple trees in the same flowering period because they open and close at the same time i.e. maximum pollination time. You can also buy an apple tree one group up or one group down to the apple tree you want to ensure pollination. The apple trees need to be of different varieties e.g. two C3 Discovery apple trees will not cross pollinate but a C3 Katy apple tree and a C3 Discovery will.

Triploid: Some apple trees are listed as triploid e.g. Bramley’s Seedling (C3), Jonagold (C4) and Blenheim Orange (C3). This means they need pollinating to produce apples but they will not pollinate other apple trees. So, if a Bramley’s Seedling (C3) is planted close to a Blenheim Orange (C3), neither tree is a useful pollination partner for the other. The best solution is to buy a C3 self-fertile apple tree but any C2 or C4 will do. If the apple tree you buy to pollinate your triploid is not self-fertile, then it will not produce apples. If you insist on having this setup then you would need a suitable pollination partner for your non-self-fertile tree, i.e. you may need three apple trees in total.

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Apple Tree Rootstocks

An apple tree is made up of two parts.

Rootstock: the roots and lower stem. This controls the tree’s vigour, mature size and how strongly it grows.
Scion: the apple variety grafted onto the rootstock. This produces the branches, leaves, blossom and fruit.

Rootstock controls the growth rate and helps decide how large the apple tree will become. Final size is still affected by soil, site and pruning, so heights are a guide rather than a fixed promise. ^[5]

Rootstock	Vigour	Frank P Matthews size guidance	Best use
M27	Very dwarf	No more than 2m	Patio tubs and very small spaces
M9	Dwarf	No more than 3m	Cordons, small gardens and controlled trees
M26	Semi dwarf	Compact, free-standing tree	Bush trees and limited spaces
M116	Medium	About 4m	Bushes, half standards and trained forms
MM106	Semi vigorous	4-5m	General-purpose apple trees, bush, cordon and half standard forms
MM111	Vigorous	About 5-6m	Half standards, standards and larger gardens
M25	Very vigorous	About 6m	Traditional orchards and full standard trees

For most gardeners, M26 and MM106 are the useful middle ground to give you a good sized tree with a decent apple harvest. You will see what rootstock the apple tree has in the list of options for you to choose before buying an apple tree online.

Tree Form

This describes the shape and form of the tree. The average apple tree is sold as a bush or half-standard.

Bush: short clear stem with a low head of branches. Usually the easiest form for picking, pruning and general use. More difficult to mow under and less formal looking.
Half standard: taller clear stem with the branch head higher up. Good if you want space underneath the tree, possibly more effort required to pick the apples as more are higher up.
Standard: full-height clear stem and larger crown. Best for larger gardens, orchards and grassed areas. Not a common form to buy online.
Patio: compact apple tree for pots, patios and very small gardens. Usually grown on a dwarfing rootstock.
Cordon: single main stem trained at an angle or upright. Good for narrow spaces, rows, walls and fences.
Espalier: horizontal tiers of branches trained flat against a wall, fence or support. Decorative and space-saving, but needs pruning.
Fan-trained: branches trained in a fan shape against a wall or fence. More common for stone fruit, but sometimes used where wall space is available.
Step-over: very low horizontal trained tree, usually edging a path or bed. Needs regular pruning and is more specialist.
Maiden: young one-year tree with little or no branching. Useful if you want to train the shape yourself.

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Crab Apple Trees

A crab apple is a small-fruited apple tree, usually grown as much for blossom, autumn colour and wildlife value as for the fruit itself. The apples are normally much smaller and taste much sharper than dessert apples, so they are more often used for jelly, jam, cider blending or left for birds. They are still part of the apple family, so a crab apple can help pollinate dessert apple trees if it flowers at the right time. Many suppliers use crab apples as orchard pollinators because they produce plenty of blossom and can cover several apple flowering groups, but flowering overlap still matters. Good pollinating crab apples often mentioned by UK suppliers include John Downie, Golden Hornet and Evereste.

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Other Useful Things to Know Before Buying an Apple Tree

Once you understand the fundamentals, there are a few extra details that can make a difference. 

Harvest Time and Storage

General rule: later-ripening apples usually store better than early apples. Early apples usually need eating within a few days, while later-maturing varieties are usually better for storage and can keep for several months in the right conditions. ^[15]

If you want apples for more than a few weeks, choose varieties with different picking times. One early apple and one later-storing apple can be more useful than two trees that dump all their fruit on you at once.

These trees are noted for long shelf life fruit.

Self-fertile eating apples: Braeburn, Red Falstaff, Saturn, Scrumptious, Sunset

Non-self-fertile eating apples: Fiesta / Red Pippin, Herefordshire Russet, Laxton’s Superb, Lord Lambourne, Kidd’s Orange Red

Cooking apples: Newton Wonder, Bramley 20, Bramley’s Seedling

Dual-purpose apples: Blenheim Orange, Charles Ross, James Grieve, Newton Wonder, Bountiful

Russet apples: Ashmead’s Kernel, Egremont Russet, Herefordshire Russet, Ribston Pippin

Disease Resistance

Some apple varieties are more disease-resistant than others. That matters if you want an easier tree and do not want to spend your life inspecting leaves like a worried Victorian plant doctor. This is listed in the product description. ^[6]

For beginners, disease resistance is worth taking seriously. Here are a few suggestions for you. 

Self-fertile eating apples: Red Falstaff, Red Windsor, Scrumptious, Red Devil, Saturn

Non-self-fertile eating apples: Discovery, Katy, Laxton’s Superb, Fiesta / Red Pippin, Lord Lambourne

Cooking apples: Grenadier, Newton Wonder, Bountiful, Bramley 20, Bramley’s Seedling

Dual-purpose apples: James Grieve, Charles Ross, Bountiful, Blenheim Orange, Newton Wonder

Russet apples: Egremont Russet, Herefordshire Russet, Ashmead’s Kernel, Ribston Pippin, Rosemary Russet

Family Apple Trees

A family apple tree has more than one apple variety grafted onto the same tree. This can be useful in a small garden because you get different apples from one tree, and the varieties can help with pollination.

The downside is that the grafted varieties may grow at different speeds, so pruning matters. If one variety grows much more strongly than the others, it can start to dominate the tree.

Step-Over and Spindlebush Apple Trees

Most people buy bush, half standard, standard, patio, cordon or espalier apple trees, but there are a few more specialist forms.

A step-over apple tree is trained very low, often along the edge of a path or bed. It is useful where space is tight, but it needs regular pruning to keep the shape.

A spindlebush apple tree is a compact upright form with a central leader and shorter side branches. It is more specialist than a normal bush tree, but useful where you want productive fruit in less space.

Two Apple Trees Can Be Better Than One

If you have the space, two different apple trees can be better than one. You improve your pollination chances, spread the picking season and reduce the risk of one poor year leaving you with nothing.

They do not need to be complicated. Two compatible varieties in the same or neighbouring flowering group is usually the sensible route. If one or both are self-fertile, even better.

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Patio Apple Trees for Small Gardens and Pots

A patio apple tree is usually grown on a dwarfing or very dwarfing rootstock and will normally reach around 1.5-2.5m at maturity.

For smaller spaces, look for:

• patio apple trees
• dwarf apple trees
• M27, M9 or M26 rootstocks
• cordons where space is narrow
• self-fertile varieties if you only want one tree

If the tree is growing in a pot, use a large, stable container, the bigger the better, and do not let it dry out.

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Best Conditions for Apple Trees

Apple trees are one of the easier fruit trees to grow in the UK, but they still need the basics.

Choose:

• a sunny position
• reasonably sheltered conditions
• fertile, well-drained soil
• enough space for the chosen rootstock and form
• good airflow around the tree

Avoid:

• deep shade
• waterlogged ground
• frost pockets if possible
• very exposed windy sites
• planting too close to large trees, walls or fences

Do not choose purely by supermarket familiarity. Supermarkets stock apples that store for the longest and then by taste. There are many apples that are far superior in taste to those stored in supermarkets.

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When to Plant Apple Trees

Bare root apple trees are planted in the dormant season. Potted apple trees can usually be planted for much of the year, as long as the ground is not frozen, waterlogged or extremely dry. Autumn to early spring is still the easiest planting period because the tree is under less stress and needs less watering. ^{[1] [2]}

Basic planting steps:

• Dig a hole wider than the roots or pot.
• Keep the graft union above soil level.
• Backfill with soil and firm gently.
• Water well after planting.
• Stake the tree if the rootstock or site needs it.
• Mulch around the base, but keep mulch away from the trunk.

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Watering, Feeding, Mulching and Pruning Apple Trees

Young apple trees need watering while they establish, especially during dry weather. Potted apple trees need more attention because they cannot reach moisture deep in the ground.

Mulch helps hold moisture and reduce weed competition. Keep it away from the trunk so the bark is not sitting damp.

Pruning depends on the form. A bush apple tree is not pruned in the same way as a cordon or espalier. For a normal garden tree, the basic aim is to keep the tree balanced i.e. branches of a similar length all round and open i.e. to let light and air into the main canopy.

Remove dead, damaged, crossing or badly placed growth.

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How Long Before an Apple Tree Fruits?

It depends on variety, rootstock, age, pollination and growing conditions. Dwarfing rootstocks often fruit earlier than vigorous rootstocks.

If you want fruit sooner, buy a larger potted or established apple tree. If you want the lowest cost, buy younger or bare root. If you want the least fuss, buy potted and self-fertile.

Apple Tree Buying FAQs

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