Apple advice - calling FB Flummery VeggieChicken and everyone else

[BroadRipple]

Haven't been on here for a loonnnng time but have missed it - bad back and general life stuff. Hope you're all well.
So: my tiny garden contains one decent-sized (covers window on first floor) tree, I think a Viburnum xDawn, which produces nothing edible, and i've finally persuaded my family to let me chop it down and replace it with an apple, which needs to reach a similar height. I already have an Orleans Reinette (small, 3 fruits this year) and a Sunset, which is unhappily in a pot and I plan to try to find space for in a bed. So obviously the tree I choose needs to work reasonably with these, particularly with the Sunset.
Am in London, SW facing, reasonable soil (once I've removed tree and heavily fed/mulched).
My priorities are in order Taste (vital), Yield, Healthiness and ideally, but not essential, dual purpose. My current top choices, Ashmead's Kernel and Blenheim Orange, are both reasonable pollinators (I know BO is triploid) with the above. So my question is this - which of these to choose? Is any other a contender? I know the basic pros and cons (thanks FB for your great posts, also have read widely) of these two, but I want YOUR experience of growing these, please? Thank you.

[veggiechicken]

Luvly to see you again BR Hope life is treating you kindly.

I can't help with your choice of apples, sorry, but I'm sure FB and the other fruity experts will be along soon!

[fishpond]

Egremont Russet is in pollination group 2
Sunset is in group 3
So it would work.
It is, to my mind, one of the best tasting apples, if not the best for eating/juicing and keeps for a couple of months or so. (providing you like russets, with their slight nutty flavour)
I am somewhat biased as I am harvesting one this week and the apples are superb. (5 bucket loads and I haven,t really started yet)
Mine is on mm106 and is 12 foot high at 10 years old.
Look on Orangepippin for plenty of ideas. www.orangepippintrees.co.uk

[rosiepumpkin]

Discovery is in group 3. It's an early cropper (July or August depending on weather) and my tree crops heavily with the most incredible tasting apples. They're lovely cooked. They go a bit soft if you keep them, but they do store for a few months. The taste fresh is incredible, crisp, sweet, with a tiny hint of sharpness, such a depth of flavour, crunch, and the ones that get the most sun are almost all red with the red going into the white flesh which is so gorgeous to look at.

I have to fight other plotholders off them.

[sparrow100]

I love Ashmead's Kernel. They taste AMAZING - tart, crisp and with a hint of pear drops. You can't buy them, though one year Waitrose stocked them. I don't know how big they get or how long till they fruit (I think they are slow), but if I had the space I'd have one.

[FB.]

Rootstock: M25 or MM111.

Varieties (in alphabet order so as not to bias)
Annie Elizabeth
Ashmead's Kernel
Belle de Boskoop
Edward VII
Norfolk Beefing

All triploid or probable triploids but which have never been genetically analysed to prove it because commercial orchards have no interest in those varieties.

Al late-keepers because a large tree of early-ripening apples will be far too many to use. Even mid-season apples don't keep long enough to use them all.

Pollination probably won't be a problem in an urban environment where lots of other people in nearby streets will have apple trees.

[yummersetter]

I planted a Blenheim Orange twenty years ago - it took eight years to fruit and is now at least 20ft high and the same diameter, so I wouldn't advise it for a small garden, even on a less vigorous rootstock than my M25. Lovely apple, though.

What rootstock is your Sunset on? Does it deserve the opportunity, because that would be on my list. And I always recommend Kidds Orange Red, which is my favourite of our trees. Orleans Reinette is a lovely cooker, by the way.

[BroadRipple]

Luvly to see you again BR Hope life is treating you kindly.

I can't help with your choice of apples, sorry, but I'm sure FB and the other fruity experts will be along soon!

Hello Veggie - thank you. All fine, busy, back stuff...you know how it is. How are things with you?

[BroadRipple]

So you're saying FB you approve of AK, is that right? Encouraging...are those rootstocks likely to be manageable? I think I remember you're wary of M26, or did I make that up?

[BroadRipple]

Oh that's very helpful, I have heard it's a late fruiter. Thanks for letting me know, and v useful about OR too. Any thoughts re: AK?

[BroadRipple]

oh cheering, thank you v much sparrow100. I do love a good pear drop

[BroadRipple]

I LOVE Discoveries, but they're easier to buy (farmer's market) (possibly near you) and am feeling adventurous...you've made me think though. FB, any thoughts?

[BroadRipple]

I love them too. Er, I think the problem might be that I love LOTS of apples (once tried and failed to grow James Grieve purely on basis of one tried in childhood)...Thanks, useful info

[FB.]

I LOVE Discoveries, but they're easier to buy (farmer's market) (possibly near you) and am feeling adventurous...you've made me think though. FB, any thoughts?

I wouldn't grow Discovery again. In this area I have to assume that every single Discovery apple has a maggot or two inside - the tree was fine for a couple of years until the codling and sawfly found it.
It also seems prone to bitter pit.
There seem to be two versions of Discovery, one is a dwarf and the other is the original which is much more vigorous.

[FB.]

I love them too. Er, I think the problem might be that I love LOTS of apples (once tried and failed to grow James Grieve purely on basis of one tried in childhood)...Thanks, useful info

I wouldn't grow ER again either.
Mine has become a very light and erratic cropper, with severe bitter pit problems and not as disease resistant as is claimed. I lost one to canker, and my surviving one isn't particularly resistant to scab, although scab is mostly a leaf problem and not too much on the fruit (although as time passes I expect the scab which can attack the leaves will evolve and mutate to attack the fruit too).