Apple trees to grow in a pot?

"James grieve" YUM YUM YUM !

 

James grieve is a beautiful Apple, I would love to have one. But it is highly susceptible to Apple canker, as far as I can tell. I have lost two trees, that completely failed to establish, later finding out that canker was in my existing trees. My fear would be that the stress of container growing could aggravate this?

Other lovely apples - a russet (there are modern varieties too!), Laxtons superb, one of the modern cox-type?
My advice would be to contact a specialist nursery, and talk to them about what you want, would like to grow, can provide for the tree, etc. Woo kindly recommended Keepers Nursery to me, we are delighted with the quality of help, advice, and trees we got!

 

I think when regarding pot growing its more down to the rootstock rather than the variety.

 

Sorry to barge in FC..
I bought a James Grieve from asda, it's on m27 rootstock and in a 55 cm wide pot. Any thoughts please @pete ?

 

I'm sorry Linz, but I'm no expert on rootstocks, seem to remember the higher the number the smaller the tree, but even that might be wrong
Just tend to know that rootstocks are the key to small or large trees.
I'm sure there is info on line regarding the most dwarfing rootstock for apples etc.

 

Cheers FC

No worries Pete, just had mini google "M27 and M9 are therefore known as “dwarfing rootstocks,” and in a garden situation, they generally lead to disappointment."

Doh!

Edit: further reading is conflicting..

 

Dont give up, try it yourself. If Had given up on plants regarded as tender by the "experts" half my garden would not exist, just give it a go.
Just seems to need more attention due to the small roots.
http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/articles/in-praise-of-the-m27-apple-rootstock

 

Just had a wee read..looks like I need to treat it like a baby. Thanks for that link

 

The numbers generally increase as the tree size goes up, but by no means not always.
Here's the rootstock info from Keepers...
http://www.keepers-nursery.co.uk/rootstocks.aspx?fruittype=
To be honest, the extra care that M27 needs is what you would automatically provide / need to do to any stemmed plant in a pot.
Weeding around the base of a tree is actually recommended up to MM106. I always mulch and weed a circle around each tree (mix of unknown, M26 and MM106) as much to ensure that I am not tempted to mow too close, risking damaging the delicate surface bark.