Choosing your trees

The first decision is rootstock, not variety. Rootstock determines the adult height of your tree, its vigour, and how soon it bears fruit. A dessert apple on M27 rootstock will reach 1.8 m and fruit in its second year; the same variety on MM111 will hit 5 m and take five years to crop. Match the rootstock to your space and patience.

For apples, M9 and M26 are the workhorses of small gardens — they produce trees of 2.5–3.5 m that fruit reliably and stay manageable on a ladder. For pears, Quince A is the equivalent: a semi-dwarfing stock that keeps trees to 3–4 m. If your soil is heavy clay or you garden in the north, choose the slightly more vigorous M26 or Quince A over the dwarf options — they cope better with cold, wet roots.

Variety comes next. Apples split into eaters, cookers and dual-purpose types; pears are almost all eaters, though a few like Catillac are cooking pears. For eaters, think about when you want to pick and eat. Early apples like Discovery and James Grieve ripen in August and must be eaten within days. Mid-season eaters like Egremont Russet and Cox's Orange Pippin come in October and keep a few weeks. Late keepers like Ashmead's Kernel and Sturmer Pippin are picked in November and store until March in a cool shed.

Heritage apples matter. Modern supermarket varieties like Gala and Braeburn are bred for shelf life and uniform sweetness, not flavour complexity. Compare that to a Ribston Pippin — sharp, nutty, aromatic — or a Pitmaston Pineapple, which tastes of honey and tropical fruit. Among pears, Doyenné du Comice is the benchmark for melting sweetness, but try Jargonelle for an early July crop or Beth for compact growth and reliable yields. If you want a cooker, Bramley's Seedling is unmatched for volume and acidity, but it is a triploid and needs two pollinators nearby.