Columnar apple

Origin & history

The columnar habit goes back to a single accident: in 1961 the fruit grower Anthony Wijcik found a branch on a “McIntosh” tree in Kelowna, British Columbia, that grew straight upwards without a single side shoot. That bud mutation became “McIntosh Wijcik”, and in the 1970s and 1980s the East Malling research station in England bred the trait into a series of new varieties that reached the trade at the end of the 1980s as the Ballerina range. Everything that genuinely grows as a column today descends from that one branch.

Varieties

Height is decided by the rootstock, not the variety — and the rootstock is rarely printed large on the label. On M27 the tree stops at 1.5 to 2 metres but needs a permanent stake and must never dry out; M9 is the usual compromise for a tub and runs to 2.5 to 3 metres. MM106 or a seedling rootstock is too vigorous for a 70-litre pot. Ask if it is not stated, and pick a selection sold as scab-tolerant. Plan the second apple variety in from the start: it has to flower at the same time, but it may stand in the neighbouring garden — up to about fifty metres still counts.

Care

Plant the bare-root tree so the graft union stays a hand’s width above the soil; bury it and the variety roots over the top, and the dwarfing rootstock stops doing its job. A tub drinks three to five litres a day in July. Thin in June to one fruit per cluster, or the apples stay small and the tree drops into cropping every second year. Shorten the side shoots to three to five buds in August. Before winter, wrap the pot in hessian and stand it on a board against the house wall — and water it on frost-free days, because most tub apples die of drought in February rather than of cold.

What can go wrong

Scab is the main event: olive-brown blotches on the leaves, corky cracks on the skin, and in a wet spring every single year. The fungus overwinters in the fallen leaves, so rake them up completely in autumn and take them out of the garden; an airy spot with sun on every side and a tolerant selection do the rest. Codling moth leaves a hole packed with crumbly frass — collect windfalls weekly and put a band of corrugated cardboard round the stem in June, which the larvae pupate in, then take it away with its contents in autumn. Shoot tips that are floury white and curled get cut back into sound wood in spring.

Harvest, storage & kitchen

An apple is ready when it parts from the spur as you lift and twist it gently; if you have to pull, wait another week. The pips are brown by then. Reckon on three to eight kilos per column, spread over two or three pickings between late August and early October. On flavour the true columnar varieties are middling — moderately sweet, often a little coarse in the flesh; they are better in a cake, as purée or in juice than on a plate. They barely keep: two to six weeks in a cool cellar, and every bruised fruit gets sorted out first.

Frequently asked questions

When do you plant a columnar apple?

Best from mid-October to the end of November. That is when bare-root trees are available, and the roots take hold while the soil is still warm. Container-grown trees can go in at any time of year, but they need far more watering over the summer.

Is a columnar apple winter hardy?

Yes, fully winter hardy — in open ground the wood needs no protection. The tricky part is not winter but the blossom in late April: if it meets a clear frosty night the crop fails, even though the tree itself is perfectly healthy. Fleece over the crown helps on those nights, and a frost hollow is the worst possible spot.

Why does my columnar apple flower but set no fruit?

Usually there is no pollinator. Apple blossom needs pollen from a second variety flowering at the same time — a crab apple next door does the job just as well. Frost or days of rain during flowering also make the fruitlets drop, and young trees only crop properly one to two years after planting anyway.

How much space do two columnar apples need?

About 60 cm apart in the row and roughly one metre between rows. Any closer and the columns shade one another, the leaves stay wet for hours after rain and the fruit colours up poorly. In tubs, measure the same distance from trunk to trunk.