Apple Trees

Eating apples or crab apples

Decide what the tree is for first. The Malus domestica eating apples here sit between 3m and 4m on their rootstocks and earn their space with fruit: Gala and Red Fuji for sweet eating, Granny Smith for cooking, Pink Lady picked late in the season. The crab apples trade fruit size for flower power. Malus floribunda smothers itself in pink budded white blossom at 5m, 'Plena' adds fragrance, and Crab Apple 'Royal Raindrops' carries deep purple cut leaf foliage, magenta flowers and small red fruit that hangs on into winter. For a tight space, 'Raspberry Spear' is a genuine column at 5m tall and only 1.5m wide.

Choosing apple trees for your climate

Apples flower and fruit properly only after enough winter cold, so chill is the honest gatekeeper. In cool temperate gardens, Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra and the hills behind Adelaide, everything here performs, and high chill types like Red Delicious do their best work. Warm temperate and Mediterranean gardens suit most varieties. In subtropical gardens the reliable choice is the Anna Apple Tree, a low chill variety bred to crop in warm winters, ideally with a second low chill apple nearby. Crab apples are equally frost hardy and most also want a real winter to flower well.

Planting, spacing and pollination

Plant in full sun, six hours minimum, in soil that drains. Space free standing trees at about their mature width, 3m to 4m for eating apples, and set 'Raspberry Spear' 1.5m apart for a narrow screen. Then think in pairs: Pink Lady crops best with Granny Smith or Gala in flower nearby, Red Fuji and Red Delicious also want a partner, and a crab apple flowering nearby will pollinate most eating apples. All but one variety here has non invasive roots, so these are safe trees near paving and pipes.

Care through the year

These are deciduous trees, so expect autumn colour, bare winter branches and blossom before the new leaves. Water deeply weekly for the first two summers, mulch to the drip line, and feed in early spring and after harvest. Prune in winter to an open vase so light reaches the fruiting wood, and thin heavy crops to one fruit per cluster in early summer for larger apples. The honest warning is codling moth: plan on exclusion bags or pheromone traps rather than hoping.

Common questions

Do I need two apple trees to get fruit?

Usually. Most eating apples set far more fruit with a different variety flowering at the same time, and a crab apple does the job too. Anna is the main exception, cropping alone in warm areas but improving with a partner.

Can I grow apples in Brisbane?

Yes, if you choose for low chill. Anna was bred for warm winters and fruits reliably in the subtropics. Classic varieties like Red Delicious will grow but rarely fruit well without cold.

Can I grow an apple tree in a pot?

The eating varieties here handle a large container of 50cm or more with annual pruning to hold them at 2m to 3m. Water daily in summer heat, because a dry pot drops fruit first.

Are crab apples edible?

They are small and tart rather than toxic, and they make excellent jelly. Most gardeners leave them for the birds, which strip Malus floribunda through autumn.

How do these trees ship?

Like our other fruit trees and deciduous trees, they are delivered Australia wide, with delivery from $29.95, no minimum order and a 30 day healthy plant guarantee; advanced and large stock is freighted at cost.