Choosing your plants:

From sweet soft varieties through to large hard cooking apples, the choice is huge. Choose a variety you like to eat! Many hybrid varieties are designed to be trained on a fence or similar structure.
Always check on pollination requirements as you may need to buy more than one tree. Often apple trees are sold as one or two year old plants. Apples will produce fruit from its third year of growth and in the right conditions will produce fruit for decades.

Growing Apples in Containers:

Unless you have a specific variety that is designed to be grown in pots or containers, apples and pears tend to be a bit large for container growing. If you are growing a particular variety in a pot, check with the growing recommendations before you start.

Care & Maintenance:

After the first few years of growth, trees tend to be able to reach down for the water they need. But, in the first few years they will need regular watering, especially during long hot summers. Don’t let your fruit trees dry out.

Keep weeds away in the first few years, because weeds can strangle roots and take the nutrients away from your young fruit trees.

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In a very cold winter, it’s a good idea to mulch around the base of the tree to help keep the roots warmer. Don’t mulch too close to the trunk or too high as this can cause rotting and encourage harmful insects and viruses that will damage the tree. Remove mulch when the weather warms up.