If you only want one, unless you have a close neighbour with a suitable pollinator, it will need to be self fertile, or one of those family trees, with more than one variety grafted on.
You'll also need to remove grass around the tree, so that its roots don't have competition from the grass. At RHS Rosemoor they have squares of about 1.2 m x 1.2 m of bare soil around each apple tree in their orchard, if I recall correctly.
I think 2 feet should be fine, but it's especially important for apples on M27 rootstock, I'm told, because the roots are so weak they can't deal with the competition from grass. The best thing would be to buy from a specialist nursery and ask them.
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If you only want one, unless you have a close neighbour with a suitable pollinator, it will need to be self fertile, or one of those family trees, with more than one variety grafted on.
You'll also need to remove grass around the tree, so that its roots don't have competition from the grass. At RHS Rosemoor they have squares of about 1.2 m x 1.2 m of bare soil around each apple tree in their orchard, if I recall correctly.
Really? I'm not sure I could do more than 2 feet.
I think 2 feet should be fine, but it's especially important for apples on M27 rootstock, I'm told, because the roots are so weak they can't deal with the competition from grass. The best thing would be to buy from a specialist nursery and ask them.