Cordon Apple Tree Update – Late Summer 2024 Edition

I’m fast becoming a huge fan of cordon-trained apples. They’re extremely manageable: quick and easy to prune, likewise to check over for pest, disease or damage issues, and the apples are always in reach at harvest time. But the main advantage is that they take up very little space relative to their return in terms of how much fruit they produce; a mature cordon can easily develop twelve to twenty good-sized apples in a season, depending on the variety and size of individual fruits, of course, and twice that for a double-cordon.

My wife and I rent a full-sized allotment plot, some 27.5 x 9.5 metres. If I planted standard trees, even on dwarfing rootstock, then taking into account the requirement to leave enough space for the other fruits, veg crops and flowers that we want to grow, we’d probably only have room for three or four, perhaps six trees at most. Whereas by growing cordons – single-stem, or double-stem trees, controlled in both height and spread – along the perimeters of the main growing areas of the plot means I can eventually grow ten times as many trees. And I can grow lots of different varieties; extending the duration of the harvest season from August right through to December or beyond, as well as the range of delicious flavours that we get to experience.

I made a start on the process back in April 2019, with six cordons, and although half of the trees I planted back then had to be removed and replaced earlier this year – they were too-vigorous varieties that I’d grafted to a too-vigorous MM106 rootstock, back before I had enough of a clue to know that these would not make for good cordon trees – I’ve since added another twenty-five to the plot, and have another half dozen or so growing on in air-pots. Plus of course, the sixteen new trees that I grafted earlier this year; they’re waiting in the wings for their opportunity to shine.

Here’s how our current cordon collection is doing, and has done, so far this year. All the tree are apples, and unless otherwise specified, and all names and descriptions relate Left to Right to the trees in the photos. The sections proceed clockwise around a rectangle, which is why some of the numbering might seem out of sync. The bracketed code i.e. (M9) refers to the rootstock that the scion was grafted to.

Please note, all the images can be clicked for a larger version, if you’re viewing them on a large enough screen and would like to see them in more detail.

Section One-A

The three cordons in this section were planted in March this year, to replace three far too vigorous cordons that I had to take out over the winter. They all seem to have established nicely.

• ‘Kidd’s Orange Red‘ (M9) – this tree has already developed a useful second leader, so I’m going to develop it as a double-cordon, as long as it remains vigorous enough.
• ‘Pitmaston Pine Apple’¹A lot of folks think this one’s called ‘Pitmaston Pineapple’ and assume that means it has a pineapple-like flavour. But the name is definitely in three parts, according to the N.F.C. database and in my experience there’s not much pineapple-flavour going on. Which is lucky, as I have a very strong aversion to pineapple indeed. / ‘Rosemary Russet‘ (M9) – There was a bit of a mix-up in the labelling department, but I’ll know which variety it is as soon as it starts fruiting. Again, it’s pushing for two leaders, but the junction is a bit too high, so I might have to prune back to single for now.
• ‘Tydeman’s Early Worcester‘ (M9) – This variety is my favourite early apple²So far…. This tree was intended as a backup to the established cordon in the next section. But frankly, I don’t think you can really have too many of this delicious variety, so the more the merrier.

Section One-B

Two of these trees are the most mature on the plot, planted in 2019, and are fruiting well. The third, on the left, is playing catch-up; it was planted in 2022 to replace another that was lost to a rootstock-killing apple canker infection.

• ‘Rosemary Russet‘ (M9) – Not the strongest specimen, possibly a bit bullied by its next-door neighbour, but it is beginning to put on some growth, so with any luck it will kick on a bit next year.
• ‘Keswick Codlin‘ (M9 / MM106?) – A vigorous double-cordon, hence my suspicion that it could be on MM106 rather than M9. It produced about 15-20 good apples this year.
• ‘Tydeman’s Early Worcester‘ (M9 / MM106?) – A very good double-cordon, strong but not overly strong. It produced 15-20 good apples this year, with great flavour and texture. Currently the best early apple on the plot.

Section Two-A

These trees were all grafted in 2020 and planted in 2021.

• ‘Simister Seedling‘ (M27) – This tree was grafted with a scion from a local wilding apple that seems promising. It’s not very vigorous and suffered a serious set-back when most of it’s leader had to be removed last year due to canker, but it does seem to be fighting back. I should hopefully have fruit to try in a couple of years.
• ‘Greensleeves‘ (??) (M27) – In the past the apples that this tree has produced haven’t seemed true-to-type, so I’m waiting on a definitely ripe apple or three so I can run a more detailed i.d. check. If it is ‘Greensleeves’ then it should be ready any time now, according to the N.F.C. In the meantime the tree is healthy, albeit a bit prone to throwing out those long branches. It could do with a well-placed second leader, but keeps branching too high up the main stem.
• ‘Rajka‘ (M27) – I think this tree is in trouble. It’s had canker issues in the past, necessitating the removal of most of its leader – hence the multiple branching, – and those issues don’t seem to have been resolved; I think the canker has recurred further down the main stem. It might be a candidate for removal and replacement this coming winter.

Section Two-B

Again, these trees were grafted in 2020 and planted in 2021.

• ‘Duke of Devonshire‘ (M27) – This tree has a tendency to extend its leader and focus its growth a bit too far up the stem; it refuses to put out the sort of lower branches that I could prune into useful fruiting spurs. It might finally have put out a useful second stem lower down though, so we’ll see how that goes. It doesn’t fruit all that well either, which is a shame, as it looks like it should be a nice, russety apple, just my thing.
• ‘Wareham Russet‘ (M27) – A healthy tree, with a useful second leader developing nicely. It hasn’t fruited all that well this year, producing just a few good apples, mostly hidden from view in the pic. I’m not 100% sure of the traditional picking season for this variety, so I’m leaving them on the tree as long as possible.
• ‘Winter Gem‘ (M27) – There’s a bit of an odd curve to this one’s leader, which is my fault: in an earlier year I let it lean a little too much before I caught and corrected it. It has produced about half a dozen good apples this year, and promises to turn into a productive tree in years to come.

Section Three-A

These trees were planted in 2023, so have only been in the ground for eighteen months. I’ve allowed the ones that have shown an early inclination to set fruit to do so – rather than picking off the fruit, as is often recommended for young trees – to see if that speeds the development of bourse-on-bourse spur networks.

• ‘Gibbon’s Russet‘ (M27) – The two apples in the photo at the start of this post grew on this tree, and very tasty they were too. The tree is developing a good single leader, although I had to stake it this year to correct a tendency to lean away from the wires. Shows plenty of promise, so far.
• ‘Egremont Russet‘ (M27) x2 – I planted two Egremonts because they’re my wife’s favourite russet. Sadly though, they’ve both developed nasty apple canker infections. You can just make out the dead leader on the middle tree in the photo above; luckily it has already put out a suitable replacement, which just needs staking or tying in, so if that stem escapes infection I should be able to save the tree. The tree on the right is in much worse condition. The main point of infection is low down on the leader, and there’s a secondary lesion on the rootstock itself. On the grounds that I have access to plenty of Egremont scions at work and can easily re-graft some more next year, I’ve decided to cut my losses and will be removing this tree before long and I’ll replace it with something else over the winter.

Section Three-B

Again, these trees were planted in 2023 and I’ve been leaving fruit on them if they showed signs of developing nicely.

• ‘Court of Wick‘ (M27) – Another tree that has had problems with canker, or some other form of die-back, and has lost its leader. I’m hoping some of that visible regrowth will prove useful next season, otherwise I might have to try to re-source scions for a re-graft.
• ‘Nutmeg Pippin‘³Or possibly ‘Cockle Pippin‘ a.k.a. ‘Nutmeg Pippin’; there are two entries in the N.F.C. database. I think this tree is looking more like the more recent, 1920s ‘Nutmeg Pippin‘, but I’m keeping an open mind until I can run a closer i.d. match. (M27) – This tree is developing nicely as a single cordon so far, although there’s a potential second leader just starting to grow, low down on the main stem. It produced half a dozen smallish apples this year, which should be ready to try in a couple of weeks⁴I sampled an early-dropper as I typed this up and it’s very sharp, almost sour, at the moment..
• ‘Pitmaston Pine Apple‘ (M27) – There’s a lot going on with this little tree, most of which is hard to make out in the photo. It’s already lost one leader, and possibly a second, so seems to be branching all over the place. Over the winter I’ll assess it to see if it’s structurally salvageable for cordon growth, otherwise it might be transplanted to an air-pot and left to do its thing.

Section Four-A

Same as above: planted 2023, apples allowed to develop.

• ‘Ashmead’s Kernel‘ (M27) – This tree seems to be doing well so far, with a decent leader and a possible second, giving it the potential to develop into a double cordon. Time will tell.
• ‘Tupp’s Favourite‘ (M27) – Again, good early development, albeit with a kink or two in the trunk, and a split leader that’s a bit too high up the main stem to keep both. Another one to re-shape this winter.
• ‘Gibbon’s Russet‘ (M27) – This tree did produce a single apple this year, but it dropped not long before I took these pics. You can probably make out the useful-looking side-branches from the leader, which should spur up nicely. A promising start.

Section Four-B

One more time: these trees were planted in 2023, and apples have been allowed to develop for spur-forming purposes.

• ‘Knobby Russet‘ (M27) – This tree also produced a single apple this year, which really was properly knobby (see below). It fell far too early though, so I didn’t get to taste it in its prime. But the tree is growing well so far, so I’m hopeful of good crops in years to come.

• ‘Rosemary Russet‘ (M27) – Another tree that’s showing signs of good early development, and it even produced a few decent apples this year. Again it seems to have a split leader too high up for a double-cordon, and again, I’ll assess and address that this winter.
• ‘Saint Edmund’s Pippin‘ (M27 / MM106?) – This tree was a gift from a very good friend who was pretty sure it was grafted to M27 or M9, but given its early vigour – it has already grown half a metre or so beyond the top wire – I’m guessing in might be on MM106. I’ll try to reduce the leader height and spur up the side branches, but I’ll have to keep my eye on this one to make sure it doesn’t get too thuggish. I hope not, as the apples look rather lovely, according to the N.F.C. reference photos. But if it does then I’ll probably re-graft it to a less enthusiastic rootstock and start over.

Section Five-A & Five-B

The seven trees in this section were grafted in 2023 and planted earlier this year. Six of them form my homage to the heritage ‘Beefing’ varieties that I’ve spent the past few years researching (please see ‘The Beefing Apples Story‘ for details). I grafted them to the slightly more vigorous M9 rootstock, rather than M27, because they’re all culinary varieties, so I wanted to make sure the rootstock had that extra bit of oomph to help produce the best apples possible in years to come. I plan to keep them all as single cordons, to try and develop as thick a trunk as possible on each, again to help boost fruit production. (Biffins, here I come..!)

• ‘Striped Beefing‘ (M9) – Sadly, there’s already another major canker issue on this tree; a large lesion, quite low on the main leader, just above the small side-stem that’s starting to develop. My plan is to trim the leader right back in winter, keeping the tip for re-grafting, and to hope that side-stem grows on next year, otherwise, I’ll have to replace with a re-grafted tree in winter 2026. This is a bit of a gamble; if the canker progresses down into the rootstock, or up into the leader then I might not be able to save the tree, or have clean material to graft from. But all will hopefully not be lost, as I do have another ‘Striped Beefing’ in the other half of this section…

• ‘Norfolk Beefing‘ (M9) – After a worryingly slow start, this tree seems to be putting on a bit of leaf. Hopefully it will kick on next year.
• ‘Herefordshire Beefing‘ (M9) – Already growing strongly, but with an early double-leader formation, so perhaps the original leader sustained some damage. I’ll select the best-placed for onward growth and take the other for scion material, so I can graft a backup tree, just in case.

• ‘Herefordshire Beefing‘ (M9) – This tree is also growing well, and again the leader has split, so I’ll take one of those stems as a scion.
• ‘Norfolk Beefing‘ (M9) – Another smallish tree so far, almost the same as its twin in the previous half-section, but it is growing. Fingers crossed it kicks on well next year.
• ‘Striped Beefing‘ (M9) – This is already the second cordon tree I’ve had in this spot; the first lost its leader, which necessitated an emergency replacement. This new tree seems to be doing fine, with a good single leader and some useful side branching that I can prune for spur development. And the one I took out and trimmed back is still alive, recovering in an air-pot, so it might feature somewhere else, after its return from injury.

As I’ve been typing, I’ve realised that the two photos of this section that I took don’t actually show the seventh tree I mentioned, which is planted between the two trios of ‘Beefing’ varieties. It’s a two-variety double-cordon – ‘Discovery’ and ‘Tydeman’s Early Worcester’ – and you can just about make it out in the photos of the grafted trees, if you really want to take a closer look.

The ‘Tydeman’s’ half is growing really well, but the ‘Discovery’ half worried me for a while; it took a long time to get going, but finally seems to be showing signs of development. Hopefully both varieties will grow well in future, and I’ll have a nice tree with two plenty of tasty early apples to enjoy.

Grafted Trees

Earlier this year I grafted another 16 scions onto M9 rootstock. The plan is to set up another section, or possibly two⁵For now…, of cordons, further up the plot, and then grow on any spares in air-pots, with a view to keeping them as potential replacements, or sharing them around the site.

As you can see from the photos, I seem to have had a 100% take-rate this year, which is an unusual but very welcome state of affairs. It could be something to do with the cooler, wetter weather we’ve had this year, or maybe because I switched techniques, from whip-and-tongue to z-graft, or maybe just pure dumb luck. Whatever the case or the cause, I’m very happy with the results.

Varieties are as follows:

• 2x ‘Ard Cairn Russet‘ – I picked up these scions at the Fruit Moot in Todmorden back in January, and they seem to be doing very nicely indeed. Any apple with ‘russet’ in its name, or that’s known to have high russeting, is an apple that I want to graft and grow.
• 2x ‘Belle de Boskoop‘ – These scions came from the too-vigorous M106 cordon that I removed, and donated to a local community orchard, earlier this year. I thought I’d try ‘Be de B’ again on M9, see if that controls its vigour a little better.
• 2x ‘Blenheim Orange‘ – Likewise, an attempt to control the vigour of this hefty cooker that I originally had growing as a far too-vigorous stepover. I suspect that unless I do manage to get another stepover going – one of these two trees looks like it has two well-placed stems that might just work – then a well-behaved cordon could be a big ask. We’ll see.
• 2x ‘D’Arcy Spice‘ – Another Fruit Moot scion, and another russet apple for the collection. It’s meant to have really good flavour as well, which is something to look forward to in a few years’ time. Smallish trees so far, so they might need a year in an air-pot to kick on before planting out.
• 2x ‘Egremont Russet’ – These were intended as backup trees for the two cordons already planted, but as said cordons have both succumbed to canker – one fatally – then they’re going to be called into action sooner than planned.
• 2x ‘Merton Russet‘ – Again, it’s a russet so I want to grow it, and as a couple of useful scions were available from a tree at work, I had to give it a go. Again, smallish trees, but hopefully they’ll kick on next year.
• 4x ‘Wareham Russet‘ – Why four of this variety? Which, the eagle-eyed reader will notice, I already have in section two-b? Well, firstly, it’s quite a rare, local(-ish) apple, so I’d like to establish a few more trees at various sites, to help keep the variety going. Also, I was intending to run a mini-trial: growing on two grafted trees in the ground (as per above) and two in air-pots, to see if there was an appreciable difference in root development in the first year. But of course, I forgot. I’ll have to try again next grafting season instead. If I remember…

So there we have it. A bit of a bumper update on what has become the main focus of my non-job-related apple growing efforts. As I mentioned, I do intend to extend the cordon growing area to more parts of our plot – another reason for doing so: cordon ‘fences’ make good wind-breaks for the crops in the middle, as long as they don’t cast too much shade – which means that eventually we could end up growing (does sums in his head…) another fifty to seventy trees in addition to the thirty-eight, plus spares, that we’ve got so far.

Tell you what, a hundred sounds like a nice, round number, doesn’t it? I wonder how long it would take me to reach a hundred..?⁶At current rate of planting, I reckon I could manage that in about five years. Which means the whole lot would most likely all be at full production in about ten. Something to aim for, eh?

Anyhow, what about you? Do you grow cordons, or other trained forms? Or are you a fan of larger trees and larger crops of apples instead? What are you’re favourite cordon-friendly varieties? Do you have any questions, or observations to make, on cordon growing or cordon training? Please do let me know up via the comments, or by email if you prefer.

Footnotes

• 1
  A lot of folks think this one’s called ‘Pitmaston Pineapple’ and assume that means it has a pineapple-like flavour. But the name is definitely in three parts, according to the N.F.C. database and in my experience there’s not much pineapple-flavour going on. Which is lucky, as I have a very strong aversion to pineapple indeed. ↩︎
• 2
  So far… ↩︎
• 3
  Or possibly ‘Cockle Pippin‘ a.k.a. ‘Nutmeg Pippin’; there are two entries in the N.F.C. database. I think this tree is looking more like the more recent, 1920s ‘Nutmeg Pippin‘, but I’m keeping an open mind until I can run a closer i.d. match. ↩︎
• 4
  I sampled an early-dropper as I typed this up and it’s very sharp, almost sour, at the moment. ↩︎
• 5
  For now… ↩︎
• 6
  At current rate of planting, I reckon I could manage that in about five years. Which means the whole lot would most likely all be at full production in about ten. Something to aim for, eh? ↩︎