Apples for cider

[Jason Cartwright]

Hi,

I don't have a garden and it's quite frustrating.
I would like to have an apple tree that can be kept in a large pot/tub and be able to make juice and cider from the crop.
Can anyone recommend and tree?
I understand it would prob be a dwarfing tree (prob M27 or M9)

Thanks

[yummersetter]

My favourite tree for eating, storing and making apple juice is Kidds Orange Red, but you need a lot of apples to get enough juice to be worth setting up and cleaning a juicer. I tend to pick a wheelbarrow full and hope to get 14 bottles from that, and I expect that would be the minimum for cidermaking. I'd guess that a dwarf tree in a tub wouldn't give you more than a bucketful when it's mature, though others will know more about that than I do. Maybe look for a dessert apple you like the taste of at a Apple Day event in three weeks time, that could be grown in a tub, and see if you can buy or PYO apples from an orchard for your cider / juice.

[Alison]

We made loads of cider / apple juice from foraged apples from the wayside. The trees are nowhere near as good this year (rubbish year for most apples) but we'll still get some - and it's free. Tend to do them all as a blend of whatever we find so it is slightly pot luck but very nice.

[orangepippin]

We have a Discovery apple tree on M9 which always crops heavily (and was not bothered by the wet spring diseases this year). It produced about 3 large carrier bags of apples. That in turn made just under 2 litres of apple juice ... You need a lot of apples for juice, but fresh non-pasteurised juice straight out of the press is a revelation compared with the supermarket premium juices.

How much space do you have? One idea might be to choose heavy-cropping varieties (such as Discovery) using the very dwarfing M27 rootstock (as you suggested). You can plant these (in large containers) yet have them very close together, and thereby get a reasonable quantity. We have a trial patch of 10 x M27 trees in an area 7m by 3m.

[northepaul]

The problem with having a small rootstock (M27) is, you might be prone to getting a small crop....I have one, which is now 5 years old, and has produced a grand total of 6 apples ever!! Having said that, I have a lovely compact Dabinet, which is on a larger M26 rootstock, and is a good cropper, and would probably be ok in a pot. (Its a cider apple)
You could, on the other hand, train them into shape, therefore using a larger rootstock.
Have you thought about putting your name down for an allotment?

[Jason Cartwright]

I have thought about putting name down for but I don't, really, have time for the upkeep.

[orangepippin]

The problem with having a small rootstock (M27) is, you might be prone to getting a small crop....I have one, which is now 5 years old, and has produced a grand total of 6 apples ever!! Having said that, I have a lovely compact Dabinet, which is on a larger M26 rootstock, and is a good cropper, and would probably be ok in a pot. (Its a cider apple)
You could, on the other hand, train them into shape, therefore using a larger rootstock.
Have you thought about putting your name down for an allotment?

I agree M26 can work quite well in a pot (FB put me on to this). I also take your point about M27 trees possibly producing very few apples, but that is partly why I suggested heavy-cropping varieties such as Discovery. In general the more dwarfing the rootstock the more apples you get in the same amount of space ... but of course you need to be a bit more careful in the choice of variety and soil etc.

[Jason Cartwright]

Ok. So a M26 in a pot? Cool
What size pot?
Gardenbargains.co.uk have some 30l tubs they claim a dwarf tree can be kept in.

[rustylady]

Jason, if you want to make cider or juice from one tree in a pot I think you are wasting your time. Sorry.

[FB.]

Jason, if you want to make cider or juice from one tree in a pot I think you are wasting your time. Sorry.

I agree.

Better to collect someone's windfalls or use other substandard apples for cider.

It seems a bit of a waste to juice and cider a dwarf tree's small but unblemished crop. I'd prefer to eat or cook them.

[FB.]

Ok. So a M26 in a pot? Cool
What size pot?
Gardenbargains.co.uk have some 30l tubs they claim a dwarf tree can be kept in.

Minimum size 10-12 litres (about 1ft wide and 1ft deep). This size is often used for 2-3year old potted trees for sale in nurseries and garden centres.
Ideal would be twice as wide and twice as deep (therefore about 4x the litre capacity of a 1ft pot).
30-40litre pot would be a good choice and a good balance of being big enough for a small tree but not too big and heavy.
The smaller the pot the smaller the roots will grow, the smaller the tree will be and the smaller the crop will be.

I would suggest opting for a very-heavy-cropping variety of low to medium vigour on M26. This will help bring it into production at an early age and help to keep it fairly small and slow-growing.

[FB.]

You may also need to consider a variety which will ripen in your cooler/wetter climate - and which will resist the heavy scab and canker attacks which trees in wet climates tend to suffer from.
If your tree is even slightly prone to scab in a wet climate, you'll find most of the fruit splits and rots.

[FB.]

Finally - why not consider a variety which is multi-purpose: eating, cooking and cider?
That way, you can do what you like with the fruit. Put the substandard one's in the cider and eat/cook the unblemished ones.

Some multi-purpose apples with good disease resistance:

Alfriston (cooker and cider)
Ashmead's Kernel (eater and cider) <can be prone to bitter pit>
Brownlee's Russet (eater, cooker and cider - also spectacular pink blossom)
Cockle Pippin (eater and cider)
Colonel Vaughan (eater, cooker and cider with added bonus of immunity to woolly aphid)
Cornish Aromatic (eater and cider)
Court Pendu Plat (eater and cider)
Duke of Devonshire (eater and cider - thrives in the cold wet NorthWest)
Gravenstein (eater, cooker and cider - not prone to UK strains of apple diseases)
Hoary Morning (eater, cooker and cider - does well in the North)
Irish Peach (eater, cooker and cider - needs a little extra care when pruning)
Kerry Pippin (eater and cider)
Keswick Codlin (eater, cooker and cider - does well in cold and wet)
Lord Derby (cooker and cider)
Orleans Reinette (eater, cooker and cider)
Tower of Glamis (cooker and cider - does well up North)

[northepaul]

FB also Tom Putt is a brillient all round apple -cider/eater and good juice too...