Start With Your Ground, Not the Catalogue

It is tempting to open a nursery catalogue in January, fall for a photograph of something glossy and red, and order three trees before you have looked properly at the ground they are going into. Apple trees are forgiving, but they are not infinitely forgiving. Get the match between variety and site roughly right and you will spend your summers picking rather than propping up sulking sticks.

Begin by digging a hole. Not a planting hole — a test hole, roughly a spade's depth and width, somewhere in the middle of where the orchard might go. Fill it with water and see how long it takes to drain. If it is still full the next morning, you have heavy clay or a perched water table, and your choices narrow sharply. Apples hate standing water at the roots far more than they hate cold or a bit of drought.

Then check the soil itself. Rub a handful between your fingers. Gritty and it drains fast, meaning you will need to water young trees through their first two summers. Sticky and it holds moisture but may be slow to warm in spring. Most apples are content between pH 6.0 and 7.0, so if you garden on acid heathland or thin chalk, choose accordingly — and always ask what rootstock the tree is on before you commit.

Climate, Aspect and the Reality of a British Summer

Our climate is kind to apples in one important way: most varieties get the winter chill they need to break dormancy and fruit well. Where we struggle is with summer warmth and light, especially in the north and west.

• Cold, exposed sites and northern gardens: look at earlier-ripening, hardier varieties such as Discovery, Katy and James Grieve. They ripen before the autumn gales arrive.
• Warm, sheltered southern sites: you can push your luck with later varieties and even a few of the old French and Kentish dessert apples.
• Wet western sites: prioritise scab resistance. Ashmead's Kernel and most russets shrug off scab far better than Cox's Orange Pippin, which is beautiful but fussy.

A south-facing wall or fence is the single best microclimate you can give a tree. If you have one, use it for the variety you most want to succeed.

How Much Space Have You Actually Got?

This is really a question about rootstock, and it is the decision most often made badly. The same variety grafted onto different rootstocks becomes a completely different tree.

• M27 and M9: dwarfing. Ideal for cordons, espaliers and stepovers against a wall or along a path. Expect 2–3.5m spacing, and be prepared to stake permanently and water diligently.
• M26: a manageable bush, 3–4m apart. A good compromise for a small garden.
• MM106: the classic garden and traditional orchard rootstock, 4–5m apart. Vigorous enough to fend for itself once established.
• M25: a full standard, 5–8m or more. Only for genuine orchard plantings or grazing land.

Plant bare-root trees between November and March, ideally in a mild spell when the ground is workable but not frozen or waterlogged. They establish far better than pot-grown stock and cost a fraction as much.

Flavour, Use and the Cider Question

Be honest about what you will actually do with the fruit. A dual-purpose apple is convenient; a superb single-purpose apple is a joy.

If cider is on your mind, you will want at least some true cider varieties rather than dessert apples alone. Cider apples are classified by acidity and tannin:

• Bittersweet: Dabinett, Yarlington Mill, Harry Masters Jersey. Low acid, high tannin. The backbone of a good West Country blend.
• Bittersharp: Kingston Black, Michelin. High acid and high tannin. Use sparingly — Kingston Black makes a celebrated single-variety cider but crops erratically.
• Sharp and sweet: cookers and eaters to fill out the blend and brighten the acidity.

Most small-scale cider makers blend three or four varieties rather than chasing a single perfect apple. Plant a bittersweet as your main cropper, add a bittersharp for bite, and finish with something sharp.

Storage and the Harvest Calendar

Spreading your harvest is one of the quiet pleasures of a mixed orchard. Choose varieties that ripen at different times and you will eat fresh apples from August to April.

Early varieties such as Discovery and Beauty of Bath are eaten within days — they will not keep. Mid-season apples like Egremont Russet hold for a month or two in a cool, dark, frost-free shed. Late keepers — Ashmead's Kernel, Bramley's Seedling, D'Arcy Spice — will sit happily in breathable crates until spring if the fruit is unblemished and stored cool, around 3–5°C, with good air movement.

Pollination: The Detail Most People Forget

Almost all apples need a partner of a different variety that flowers at the same time. Varieties are grouped by flowering period, usually numbered one to six, and you need two that overlap.

The complication is triploids. Bramley's Seedling, Ribston Pippin and Blenheim Orange produce very little viable pollen, so they cannot pollinate another tree — they need two compatible partners nearby themselves.

If you are short of room, a flowering crab apple such as Malus 'Evereste' throws pollen over a long season and pollinates almost anything. And do check what the neighbours grow. Bees travel far further than most gardeners assume, and a well-planted garden three doors down may already be doing you a favour.