Four kinds of apple on one tree..!

I think they're called Family Trees and can be bought from various fruit suppliers on line - if you google am sure you'll find some. Never had one myself as I'm fortunate enough to have enough room for the individual varieties but guess they could be very good in small spaces

Alison's right, it is called a Family Tree. I bought one for my Folks as a present years ago. Got it from our local independent Nursery. Unfortunately, they've lost the accompanying info, and now can't remember what varieties they are!

Thanks for the info ladies now I know the name of it I can have a mooch around

Ken Muir have 3 varieties on one tree. I've been thinking about getting one...

Ken Muir Ltd - Family Trees

Thanks for the link DD

You can imagine the pages that came up by googling FAMILY TREE, even though I am researching mine at the moment LOL

I'm not a great fan of family trees.

In many instances, one or more of the varieties will be rather prone to disease, since the nurseries generally graft the popular (disease-prone) apples - but they're apples that everyone has heard of and the nurseries need to stock what people ask for, not what people ought to grow for disease resistance.

Additionally, the different parts of the tree often grow at different rates, or may require different pruning techniques. If the "family" contains Bramley or one of the othe vigorous varieties, the vigorous variety tends to take over and form a very one-sided tree.

I recently had a lot of trees on the same rootstock die from crown rot after being damaged by the long cold, damp winter. Fortunately, by having other apple trees on a variety of different rootstocks (M9, M26, MM106, MM111, M25), some of the rootstocks were unaffected by the conditions last winter.
Crown rot is only one example - there are many other problems that can destroy a tree from the roots up, so I would recommend "spreading the risk" among two trees, rather than everything as a family tree on one rootstock.

I also find it unappealing to have sections of a tree with different fruits.

My preference would be to grow two cordons or minarettes, rather than one "family" tree.

But since you asked....here are some links to places where you may find family trees:

> Blackmoor <

> Chris Bowers <

> Deacons <

I had one from Deacons with 3 varieties. But as FB says it was never very healthy and in 3 years I didn't have any (edible) fruit.
What does your neighbour's one look like - healthy? If so (and you have the cash!) why not go for it?

Thanks for the info, will consider my options.

Was great, Loaded with apples Scrumped a few as none owned it Shhhhh !

You're welcome.

Before you buy any fruit tree, make sure that you either go for one where all varieties are disease resistant to your requirements, or make sure that you appreciate the demanding spray regimes that some varieties will require if they are to remain healthy and productive (Cox, Braeburn and many other shop apples will be troublesome without spraying!).

Also consider the types of fruit that you want - cookers, juicers, eaters, early-ripening, late-keeping etc.
If your location is prone to extreme weather (heavy rain, high winds, late frosts, short/dull summers etc), that may affect what will grow successfully.

However, there are apple varieties suitable for almost any location - which is why people still eagerly seek out some of the "forgotten" varieties that were grown centuries ago for their special tolerance of certain conditions.

I have only room for one tree as we are not allowed to block out light from neighbours, so I would ideally like 1 cooker and two eaters.

We don't (usually) have extremes of weather here, I am higher up on the site so no flooding, quite protected and good sunlight.

Any suggestions welcome

Here is a pic of the apples that fell off the tree, there was another type looked like a cox.

After a quick glance, these are the family trees that would most interest me, based on reliability and disease resistance.

1
Blackmoor’s
Worcester, Egremont, Golden Delicious (watch that the G.D. doesn't try to take over; summer prune the G.D. if it tries to outgrow the others)
Worcester is an early eater (Sept), Egremont a mid-late eater (Oct-Jan) and G.D. a late eater/cooker. It is also possible to use under-ripe eating apples for cooking. In fact, in warmer/sunnier climates, cooking apples become eaters and in cooler/duller climates, eating apples become cookers.

2
Deacons
Quad
Spartan, Orleans Reinette, Discovery, Sunset
Discovery is an early, the others are mid-late. All varieties have average-good disease resistance.
I rate Deacons second to Blackmoor in terms of plant quality (Blackmoor have possibly the best quality plants available), so I rate this tree second, even though the variety combo is superior to Blackmoor.

3
Blackmoor’s
Discovery, James Grieve, Sunset (watch that the J.G. doesn't try to take over)

4
Deacons
Orleans Reinette, Spartan, Ashmead’s Kernel


Chris Bowers don’t mention the rootstock, so I would either ask them, or shop somewhere else. It is essential to know which rootstock you have, otherwise the tree will be much smaller or larger than you expect – or may not like the soil in which it will be planted.
I've seen family trees on M27, M26 and MM106.
M27 will be about 4ft, M26 about 8ft and MM106 about 11ft in average growing conditions. MM106 is especially prone to rotting if there is surface water. M26 is prone to woolly aphid. M27 is prone to woolly aphid and is very weak-growing, potentially needing good soil and lots of attention to thrive.

5
Chris Bowers’
Charles Ross, Discovery, James Grieve (watch that the J.G. doesn't take over)

6
Chris Bowers’
Sunset, Russet, Fiesta (unfortunate that they don't specify which russet)

.


How much space do you have?
I would only half-heartedly choose one of the above combinations.
If it is at all possible to get two small trees in the place of one medium tree, that would be my preference. You could then choose two varieties that give just what you want - cooking, eating, reliable, heavy cropping, disease resistant, trouble-free.

Thanks for that FB your a star !

I am going up the lottie later so will have a think, I have just taken on my second plot and would like to use it for fruit mostly.

Just don't want to upset the neighbours by shading their plots.

If you're worried about shading you can still have more than one tree but grow them as cordons. I have a couple of pear trees and about half a dozen apples along a fench line, won't get as much off them as if I had full sized trees but I like the variety.