Home Fruit Garden Tour – Columnar Apples

A great way to grow lots of tasty apples in a small space is with “Columnar” apple varieties. These are bred to produce spurs and fruit along the main trunk and on the short branches coming out of the main trunk.  These trees can be spaced about 3-4 feet apart in the ground or grown nicely in a pot.  In summer it can look like a solid wall of apples. 

In recent years disease resistant apple varieties have been crossed with columnar varieties to make available scab resistant trees with good quality fruit that ripen throughout the growing season. 

Our trees are on semi dwarfing rootstocks that make a tree that can grow to more than ten feet tall but can be topped and maintained at about six feet tall.  These trees can be grown by removing the short upright side branches or you can leave the upright branches which will also produce lots of fruit. These columnar apples grow well in USDA Zones 4-9. Most bloom in mid season and will pollinate and be pollinated by other mid season blooming apples not only columnar apples. The white flowers on columnar apples are plentiful and beautiful putting on a show each spring.  These trees in pots can turn your sunny patio into a beautiful garden of eatin. 

We have the following varieties:   Golden and Scarlet Sentinel and White Icicle come from a Canadian breeding program in Summerland B.C.

“Urban Apples”
Urban Apples are highly scab and mildew resistant selections, many from Dr. Jaroslav Tupy of the Czech Republic.