Stepover Apple Tree
Grow low, pick with ease
Grown by Danielle
South Downs National Park
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Perfectly happy plants, or your money back
Specialist overnight plant delivery
The highlights
- Expertly trained into a low-growing shape
- Includes RHS award-winning varieties
- Puree into a sauce to serve with roast pork
- Both sweet and tart apples, dreamy flowers
Description
- 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
What to expect
What to expect
Supplied as
Height on arrival
Eventual height
Eventual spread
Time to first crop
Flower colour
Habit
Hardiness
Self fertile
Pollination group
Uses
Rootstock
Spacing
How to grow
How to grow
Good pest and disease resistance
Certain varieties like 'Discovery' and 'Bramley's Seedling' display good disease resistance, however your stepover apple tree might still be affected by aphids, caterpillars and moths.
Full sun
For best fruiting, plant your stepover apple tree in a fully sunny spot (at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day).
Any fertile, well-drained soil
Apple trees grow best in loamy, fertile soil with good drainage. Amend your soil with some organic matter if you need to improve fertility or drainage.
Planting calendar
Planting calendar
- Best time to plant
- Harvest
- Flower
Choose your variety
South Downs National Park
Meet Danielle
110 years' expertise free with every tree
Danielle's nursery has been growing trees in the South Downs National Park for over a century, and it shows. Dug up and sent straight to your garden at between 18-36 months old, their quality rootstocks, expert pruning and natural pest control mean that these traditionally field-grown trees are the hardiest you can get.
What customers say about us
We do our best to provide you the best experience ever
Growing with Roots
Good to know
Our plants are grown in the UK
Specialist UK growers we know and trust grow your plants the traditional way, with organic fertiliser and biological pest control. They pick only the healthiest plants for you, professionally pruning them so that they’ll grow strong and well shaped.
Our plants are delivered overnight
Your plants are sent to you fresh from the field in our plastic free box that’s specially designed to hold them tight, then securely delivered by specialist plant couriers - straight from the grower to your garden within 24 hours.
We're here to help at every step
We want your plants to have a long and healthy life. Expect easy-to-follow grow guides and videos devised by our team of experts.
Perfect plants, guaranteed
We’re confident that you’ll be delighted with your new plants. Need help? Alice and her team are here to guarantee you’re perfectly happy.
Learn from our experts
For growing advice that's clear and easy to follow
Thinning Apples and Other Fruit Trees
Can too much fruit be bad? Professional fruit growers swear by thinning apples & other species, reducing the crop to produce bigger, better quality fruit.
Read more
Ask the grower
One of our trusted team will get back to you via email
What customers say about us
We do our best to provide you the best experience ever
Best plants you will ever get online
I have ordered plants from them twice this year. They arrived well packaged, on time and looked strong and healthy. I feel the staff from Roots plants deal with their plants and customers with passion and care. I can’t wait to order again, price is good as well.
Highly recommended all round
Delivered quickly, perfectly packaged and the tree was in excellent condition. Really healthy and taken to the garden with no problems. Can't recommend highly enough. 5 stars isn't enough!
Satisfied customer
Unlike other online sellers, this company are well ahead in the quality stakes. My plant arrived promptly as per their promise and the plant was much more established and healthy than I had expected. It’s the second time I have ordered from them and I have faith in their promise. Excellent service.
A really good quality tree
A really good quality tree, delivered on time and very well packaged. But the emailed planting advice and supporting information was what really impressed me. Thoroughly recommended.
Exceptional quality
The quality of the plants was exceptional, unlike ones I have had before from local garden centres. Thank you so much. I will definitely be using you again.
Marvellous!
Marvellous service, great plants and fast delivery. Very useful information on how to care for the plants I bought. Easy to use website that makes it far too easy to overindulge in fabulous plants 😂🌱
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