Hi Janet

Have had fun trying to get this one out - third time lucky I hope!

Brogdale do offer an orchard design service - anything from 10 to 100
trees. You may recall Sarah Raven had her mixed orchard designed by
them on the Gardener's World Fruit special. I have no idea of cost but
they will be able to supply the trees.

When it comes to growing fruit in a limited space I do believe you need
to make the choice between wanting to grow a heritage variety because
it is a heritage variety ( and may suffer from a selection of ailments)
through to the more modern offerings. In my book I want taste and
reliability. I don't want a fest one year and nothing the next.
Equally I don't want to be spraying for a host of problems either. So
I spend my time going through the books, which is why I have affection
for Martin Crawford's book Directory of Apple Cultivars. That can lead
to a choice of older cultivars or to more recent introductions.

My concern in drawing up a plan for your garden would be the soil.
From what I have read, when the pH is above 7.5 the trees tend to
suffer lime-induced chlorosis. There are a few that prefer alkaline
conditions - Barnack Orange, Barnack Sport and Red Charles Ross spring
to mind.

If you can get Martin Crawford's book from the library first, then do
so - I feel it has been worth every penny.

Fruit yield is a science in itself; commercially you can imagine they
cannot cope with a tree that is biennial or with inconsistent yields.
The majority of commercial orchards these days are planted on m9
rootstocks which produces a tree just over 6ft tall. Here they target
55 apples per tree. As with most commercial practices everything is
geared to lower labour inputs to reduce cost. The latest trend is to
grow super spindles; these are planted as 2 year old trees, around 2m
tall and planted against a cane on a post and wire system. The come
into fruit two years later - yielding 3lbs and in year 6 yield 20lbs
which is comparable with an M9 bush tree except 1 year earlier. They
are spaced 1.3 x 3m. It is something that can be replicated at home
- ok not as aesthetic as a mature standard tree but...

Fun over

A tree grown as a bush, on a M26 rootstock, would yield a tree 8 -12 ft
tall producing from 60 - 100lbs of fruit. As your soil is not ideal
- in that it is alkaline, this could affect the yield - by as much
as half!

As for your thought on growing cordons - that is an excellent ideal.

For grouping fruit by characteristics - well in the main text no.
There are a couple of books, that are hard to get hold of, which serve
as keys to apple identification. One of them Apples - A guide to the
Identification of International Varieties, John Bultitude ISBN
0333385365. Bultitude was the UK expert in apples until his death in
1979; he devised a system of classification to aid apple
identification. This involved grouping the apples into eight, Group
VI: Mainly red (Worcester type) mainly dessert apples, and group VIII
skin mainly russet (Egremont Russet type) dessert apples. In the table
he lists the shape of fruit and its season. The book itself is in
alphabetical order.

Hope this helps

If I can assist feel free to holla

Clifford
Bawtry, Doncaster, South Yorkshire