🌱✗ Tested and false“Pruning cuts on an apple tree should be sealed with wound paint to stop disease getting in”
There is no need to use wound paints on a pruning cut. They are unlikely to help healing or keep disease out, and a cut left alone generally heals better than one that is bandaged or painted.
Our read This is one of those pieces of advice that used to be standard and has since reversed, which is worth knowing if you learned to prune from an older book or a relative who always painted cuts.
What to do: Make a clean cut with sharp, clean tools and leave it to heal on its own. The one genuine exception among fruit trees is plums and cherries, where wound paint is still worth using to keep out silver leaf spores, not apples.
1 source
- RHSThere is no need to use wound paints, as they are unlikely to contribute to healing or prevent disease.
“Dark sunken spots on stored apples (bitter pit) mean pests got to the fruit”
Bitter pit is a disorder, not a disease or pest damage: it's caused by low calcium in the fruit, and is rarely a true calcium deficiency in the soil. The real driver is an irregular water supply, which stops the tree moving calcium it already has into the developing fruit, made worse in a season with wide swings in rainfall and temperature.
Our read The spots look exactly like a pest or a rot, which is probably why the pest explanation sticks. But the fix is about watering consistency, not spraying anything.
What to do: Water and mulch consistently through the growing season rather than letting the soil swing between dry and wet, avoid heavy nitrogen/potassium/magnesium feeding, and leave fruit on the tree until fully ripe, since unripe fruit is more likely to be low in calcium.
In Scotland: Scotland's wetter, cooler growing conditions mean the dry-spell trigger is less often the whole story here than in a hot, dry English summer, but the same irregular-supply mechanism still applies if a dry spell does hit while fruit is developing.
1 source
- RHSa disorder, not a disease... caused by low levels of calcium in the fruit... rarely due to a deficiency of calcium in the soil... an irregular supply of water, which prevents calcium being taken up and circulated around the tree
“An apple tree that crops heavily one year then barely at all the next is unhealthy or dying”
This pattern is called biennial bearing, and some cultivars are simply naturally prone to it, with weather and soil fertility able to bring it on in others. It's a cropping pattern, not a sign of ill health. The related early-summer fruit drop many trees show, June drop, is also not generally a cause for concern on its own.
Our read A tree swinging between a glut and almost nothing looks alarming, especially the first time you see it happen. It's manageable, not diagnostic of a problem.
What to do: Thin fruit deliberately straight after the natural June drop: for dessert apples, one or two fruits every 10-15cm, since regular thinning is the main tool for evening out a biennial pattern over subsequent years.
2 sources
- RHSBiennial bearing is a problem in some fruit trees, particularly apples and pears, where they crop heavily in one year and then produce little or nothing the next. Some cultivars are naturally biennial.
- RHSfruitlets fall over a short period, which may look alarming but is not generally a cause for concern
“A crab apple tree is ornamental only and does nothing for a 'proper' eating apple tree nearby”
The opposite is true: crab apples are particularly useful for pollinating apples, because they produce an abundance of flowers over a long period, helping them overlap with more pollination groups than a single eating-apple variety would.
Our read Worth knowing if a neighbouring garden has an ornamental crab apple and you've been assuming you need a second 'real' apple tree of your own to get a crop.
What to do: If space only allows one eating-apple tree, check whether a crab apple already growing nearby (yours or a neighbour's) is close enough to help with pollination before assuming you need to plant a second dedicated variety.
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- RHSCrab apples are particularly useful for pollinating apples as they produce an abundance of flowers over a long period.
“You need a full-size standard apple tree and a proper orchard to get a decent crop”
The rootstock system apples are grafted onto is built specifically to make this untrue: M27, the most dwarfing rootstock available, keeps a tree to as little as 1.2-1.8m, small enough for a dwarf pyramid or a stepover trained flat along a low edge. M9 and M26 still suit cordons, pots and small espaliers. A full-size M25 standard, at 4.5m or more, is the option for the opposite case: someone with real orchard space to fill.
Our read Rootstock, not tree age or garden ambition, is what actually decides the size. That's a genuinely useful thing to know before assuming apples are off the table in a small garden.
What to do: For a small garden, choose a tree already grafted onto M27, M9 or M26 and grown as a cordon, stepover or trained espalier rather than ruling out apples for lack of space.
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- RHSM27... Dwarf pyramids, spindlebush or stepovers, for small gardens... M25... Standards
“You always need two apple trees for either of them to fruit”
Not always true, but not simply false either. The core pollination advice is that you need another tree of a different variety flowering at the same time nearby, unless you choose a self-fertile variety. But even self-fertile trees tend to crop better when another cultivar is planted nearby, so a single self-fertile tree is a genuine option, just not one that necessarily performs as well as having a second tree.
Our read Treat 'self-fertile' as 'works alone' rather than 'performs identically alone'. For a garden with room for only one tree, that's still worth knowing before ruling apples out: plenty of neighbouring gardens likely have flowering apples or crab apples close enough to help anyway.
What to do: If you only have room for one tree, choose a self-fertile variety such as Scrumptious rather than assuming any AGM variety will do. If you can fit two, choose from the same or an adjacent pollination group so they flower together.
2 sources
- RHSyou need another tree of a different variety nearby, which flowers at the same time, to ensure successful pollination and a good crop. Alternatively, choose a self-fertile variety.
- RHSeven self-fertile selections tend to crop better when another cultivar is planted nearby
