Cooking apple help

[orangepippin]

1-year trees bare-root, also called "maidens" are basically sticks about 5ft high. They can be trained into any style you require as they grow.

"Bush" trees are trained at the nursery with a short clear stem, typically 15" - 20", above which the main branches start and radiate outwards - a bit like a wine glass. The idea is to keep the whole tree quite low to the ground, making picking and maintenance easier.

Half-standards are where the length of the clear stem is about 3ft / 1m. You can usually sit under a half-standard quite easily.

A standard is where the length of the clear stem is 6ft / 1.7m or more. You would be able stand beneath one of these trees, but they take several years to reach the necessary height etc.

There are many other styles of fruit tree, and if your supplier does not have the format you want, you can always do it yourself starting with the 1-year tree. For example some styles, often called spindles, pyramids or central leaders, require the main stem (the central leader) to be retained - whereas in bush-trained trees this will have been removed. Fruit quality is sometimes better on these forms, but that is less of an issue with cooking apples.

In most cases the graft union will be at roughly the same height.

MM106 is the main semi-vigorous rootstock used in the UK. It can be used for maidens, bush, and half-standard trees - it's not really vigorous enough for a full standard.

[yummersetter]

Rev Wilkes, which is lovely, is an early cooker, just finishing now on my trees. I have it as a bush and half standard on 106.
The graft itself is usually about 2-4 inches above ground level.

[mango man]

Thanks for the informative posts on choosing a tree. I am going towards the lanes prince albert, rev wilks, dumelows seedling it think, he say's!

My other trees are an m26 triple crawley beauty, newton wonder, lord derby

2 charlottes and a polka ballerina trees

And there is a bramley, crab apple, and another tree next door. Should i be ok for pollination on my chosen top three?

I read the prince albert keeps a few months along with the dumelows (am i right) but does the rev wilks only keep a very short period up north?

The usage time would be key to my choice.

Any further advice would be appreciated as i have been educated more from this forum in the last few days than i could ever imagine regarding apple trees.

Many thanks

[FB.]

With several trees nearby, you shouldn't have a problem with pollination partners - as long as the bees bother to visit and as long as the weather is reasonable at blossom time.
Bramley - being triploid - is not a reliable pollinator of other apple trees. Crab apples are usually very good pollinators for other apple trees.
Even if there wasn't a pollinator nearby, many apple trees (including Bramley) will set a partial crop with their own pollen - and a bee may have travelled a few miles before it got to your tree, so potentially picked up pollen from a tree some distance away.

Rev.Wilks only keeps for a couple of months. Dumelow's and Lane's keep for 4-5 months if handled and stored carefully; the Lane's in particular can suffer if roughly handled.

Lane's and Rev.Wilks are not particularly vigorous trees. On MM106, I'm not sure whether they'd be strong enough to make a good half-standard - especially if you try to make them fruit in their early years, since fruiting draws energy away from growth.

How big is your M26 tree?
An M26 Newton Wonder or Lord Derby is probably about the same vigour as a MM106 Rev.Wilks.

[mango man]

Hi the m26 is 4 years old and and about 7ft across but is pruned each year, with a couple of branches i did not prune getting on for 9ft in height, things do grow very well in the garden.