Super Column Apple Trees.?

[seasprout]

The Blurb says

"" Supercolumns are the modern way of growing your apples, pears, plums and gages. Slender, compact columns that grown on average to only 7 tall and bearing heavy crops along the full length of the stem. Wonderful to see in blossom and perfect for the small garden or large intensive orchard. Plant just 2' apart. Supercolumns can be grown in the garden border, planted to create a walk through, in rows in a mini orchard, as a hedge or in tubs on a patio. Supercolumns are very easy to manage and picking is easy, the fruits ripen to perfection and with the benefit of more sunshine the fruits have an excellent flavour. Crops can be very heavy with an apple capable of producing 30 or more full sized fruits for years.""

This is perfect for me, has anybody got any experence of this type of trained tree..??

I've found an old post which recommends Chris Bowers Fruit trees, and they curently have the apple tree I want.

[FB.]

Supercolumn is basically a cordon planted upright.
You will need to make sure that they are pruned properly and at the right time, but that's the same for most "trained" apple forms.

If you're on a tight budget, you could train a "maiden" apple tree on one of the more dwarfing rootstocks (M27/M9/M26/MM106 - the best rootstock depending on soil and variety).

Certain varieties may not be well-suited to growing as columns while other varieties could do very well. Which variety do you plan to grow?

[seasprout]

. Which variety do you plan to grow?

James Grieve, its a self pollinator and you can cook it and eat it.....if that makes sense.

[FB.]

Yes, what you say makes sense.
I have a JG myself. I'd say that it seems a good choice for what you want.
There are lots of good points to JG but make sure that you keep a watch for it's weakness; canker. Woolly aphid damage will also encourage canker (and root problems), so don't let them get established.

I also like Bountiful as a widely available early-autumn dual-purpose apple.
Comparing the two:
JG is self-fertile, Bountiful is reported to be self-sterile by the experts (I'm not convinced but I'm not expert).
JG's taste is a bit better.
Bountiful's disease resistance is better
Bountiful apples keep better than JG
Bountiful seems to be a bit less attractive to maggots, insects or wasps
Bountiful's fruits are larger and to many people, they look like Bramleys.

I prefer larger cookers - the larger size makes them a lot easier to peel and prepare in the kitchen.

[seasprout]

Think I'll take a better look at Bountiful.