As Christmas approaches, I can’t be sure whether you will receive this newsletter before or after Santa arrives. At the moment it doesn’t look like a white Christmas is on the way, although you never know… In any case, we hope that you enjoy our winter newsletter.

 People who visit us often wonder how they can grow a small apple tree in their garden, rather than a big one like you would traditionally find. The secret to this is to grow the apple tree, not on its own root, but rather on a root of a naturally small apple tree. This practice of growing one plant grafted or budded onto another has been used since ancient times, although it only became more widespread from the seventeenth century onwards. At this time, it was fashionable for the owners of big houses to adorn their gardens with miniature trees, including apple trees. Among the popular small trees at the time were the aptly named “Paradise” apples. However, because these paradise trees all produced similar apples, alternative varieties needed to be grafted onto them to give a better range of fruits. Among the apple types that were grown on the miniature paradise rootstocks at this time were Permains, Gilliflowers, Pippins, Reynets, Nonpareil and Ruffetings.
Of course, with so many apple types, and more than one paradise rootstock, over the following centuries, there ensued some considerable confusion as to which rootstock was which, and what one had the more desirable effect on the variety which was grafted onto it. 
The first scientific efforts to sort this out were undertaken at Wye College Fruit Experimental Station at East Malling, England, when in 1912 they decided to “start from the very beginning and put on record detailed descriptions of various types (of rootstocks)”. After a few years, twenty-four distinct rootstocks had been assessed and classified, and these were numbered M1 to M24. After this some breeding work was done, and numbers including M26, M27 and MM106 (which is resistant to woolly aphid) released.
The success of this approach is evident today, with these exact rootstocks still being used by growers. The rootstock on which a variety is grown will have various effects on the apple. For instance, the fruits from a Bramley’s Seedling cooker on M27 will be smaller than on M9, but may contain more calcium. Also for example, varieties grown on MM106 trees tend to produce more apples than on other similar-sized rootstocks. However, the most obvious characteristic will be the tree size, and it is this feature which is of greatest interest to people in general.
So, what rootstock should you ask for? If you are looking for the smallest possible tree, unlikely to exceed 5 feet (1.5 metres) high, then M27 is suitable. If you would prefer a tree up to eight feet tall (2.5 metres) then M9 is the best candidate. For a twelve-foot tree (4 metres), M26 is suitable, and larger than this, MM106. Remember that all these trees will require a stake, as their roots alone are not secure enough to hold them up, and the weaker the rootstock, the stronger the stake should be.
Here on our farm, almost all the trees you see are on M9 rootstock, which is a safe choice. In the future we may use some M27’s, as although summer drought can be a problem with these, dry summers are not a problem that we seem to have very frequently.

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