Stepover Apple Tree
- Undoubtedly one of the coolest ways to grow an apple tree is to train it as a stepover. Named as such because you can – quite literally – step over it, these trees grow low to the ground (at around half a metre tall) and consist of a short central trunk and two horizontal, spur-bearing branches (forming a T shape) which typically reach two to three metres in length
- With a stepover apple tree, you can grow a tree in even small spaces (around a veg bed, for instance) without worrying about shading out that part of the garden – what’s not to like about that?
- ‘Braeburn Hillwell’ is a sport (genetic mutation) of ‘Braeburn’, yielding deep red apples with good firmness that store very well
- ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ apples are all about big, bold flavour with notes of pear and melon coming to the fore – they’re perfect for juicing, too!
- ‘Discovery’ yields brilliantly juicy dessert apples, as well as displaying great resistance to pests and disease
- ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ can (justifiably, we feel) make the claim for being the best cooking apple, thanks to its perfect levels of sharpness which work wonderfully in crumbles, strudels, chutneys and sauces
- ‘James Grieve’ is a fantastic dual-purpose variety, boasting apples with great sharpness initially, becoming sweeter when left on the tree for longer. It’s also an RHS award winner and extremely reliable
- Growing a stepover fruit tree can be tricky, but not when our growers have done the hard part of the initial training for you! To find out how to properly support and prune your stepover tree so that it retains its shape, check out our article, Stepover Apple Trees: The Complete Guide
- Bare root stepover trees arrive in a Y shape with two leading branches, which you’ll need to gradually train in stages into a T shape on a horizontal frame
