Tree
How to grow a crab apple tree
Malus sylvestris and ornamental Malus cultivars
A crab apple suits most UK gardens: fully hardy, happy in any reasonable soil that is not waterlogged, and best in full sun. Plant a bare-root tree between November and March, stake it low, and keep a mulched, grass-free circle round it for the first three years. The choice of variety decides most of what follows, since some crab apples are far more prone to scab and mildew than others, and 'Evereste' has a good reputation for staying clean. Pruning is light and done in winter.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy
- Position
- Full sun
- Soil
- Fertile, free-draining
- Ideal pH
- 6.0 to 7.0
- Water
- Low to moderate
- Feeding
- Light feeder
Sowing and planting a crab apple tree
WhenPlant bare-root Nov to Mar; blossom Apr to May; fruit Sep to Nov
Starting off
Plant bare-root trees Nov to Mar, staking with a 1 m stake driven in at 45 degrees before planting and tied for 3 years; container stock any month with 20 litres of water weekly through the first summer. Named cultivars are grafted or budded onto apple rootstocks (whip-and-tongue grafting in Feb to Mar, budding in Jul to Aug); seed from pips, sown outdoors in Oct, gives variable but often pretty seedlings in 5 to 8 years.
Spacing and planting
Most ornamental crabs ('John Downie', 'Evereste', 'Red Sentinel') reach 5 to 8 m tall by 4 to 6 m wide in 20 years; 'Royalty' and 'Rudolph' 5 m by 4 m; on M26 or M9 rootstock they stay at 3 to 4 m. Plant 4 to 5 m from buildings and 4 to 5 m from other trees, in a square hole twice the rootball width with the graft union 5 to 10 cm above soil level. Dwarf-rootstock trees do well in a 50 to 60 cm pot of loam-based compost for 5 to 10 years.
Varieties worth growing
- 'Evereste'
- White blossom from red buds, orange-red fruit that hangs into winter, and a good reputation for staying free of scab and mildew. A safe single choice.
- 'John Downie'
- The best for crab apple jelly: large, egg-shaped orange and red fruit in September. Can suffer from scab.
- Malus × robusta 'Red Sentinel'
- Glossy cherry-red fruit that stays on the bare branches well past Christmas; the one for winter display and birds.
- Malus × zumi 'Golden Hornet'
- Heavy crop of yellow fruit and a long blossom season that makes it a widely used pollinator for eating apples. Fruit browns after hard frost.
- 'Jelly King'
- Bred for the kitchen: large orange-pink fruit in quantity on a compact tree.
A crab apple tree month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Plant bare-root trees when the ground is not frozen. Prune lightly: dead, diseased, crossing and rubbing branches only.
- February
Finish pruning. Keep planting. Check the stake and loosen ties that are biting.
- March
Last bare-root planting. Feed young trees and renew the mulch over moist soil.
- April
Blossom. Start watering trees planted this winter. Remove grease bands.
- May
Blossom finishes. Watch shoot tips for mildew and cut it out.
- June
Water young trees with 20 litres a week in dry weather. Pull off suckers from below the graft.
- July
Keep watering first- and second-year trees. Rub out water shoots on the trunk.
- August
Nothing to do on established trees. Keep young ones watered.
- September
Fruit colours. Pick 'John Downie' for jelly while it is firm.
- October
Pick later varieties for jelly, leaving plenty for the birds. Fit grease bands. Order bare-root trees.
- November
Plant bare-root trees. Rake up fallen leaves if scab was a problem.
- December
Plant and prune in mild spells. Enjoy the fruit on 'Red Sentinel' and 'Evereste'.
Feeding a crab apple tree
A light feeder. Feed for the first three years to get the tree established, then leave it to a yearly mulch; a mature crab apple in decent soil needs no fertiliser, and too much nitrogen costs blossom.
Low, a light spring feed and a mulch.
Feeding plan
Planting
5 g per litre of root ball, dusted straight onto damp roots: 50 g for a 10 litre container tree. For a bare-root tree judge the roots as a volume; a typical young tree has about 5 litres of root, so 25 g.
March, years 1 to 3
50 g/m², half the label rate: 40 g scattered over the mulched circle 1 m across (0.8 m²) and watered in, once a year.
March, every year
Garden compost
A 5 to 8 cm mulch over the 1 m circle, kept 10 cm clear of the trunk. For an established tree this is the whole feed.
March, an established tree in grass making short, pale growth
100 g/m² once, on a cleared circle 1.5 m across (about 1.8 m²): 180 g.
March, trees in pots
2 g per litre scattered on the surface and watered in: 80 g for a 50 cm pot holding about 40 litres. Repeat once in June.
Signs to watch
Small, pale yellow-green leaves and short shoots on a tree in grass → nitrogen hunger from turf competition → clear a 1 m circle, mulch and a balanced feed in Mar. Older leaves yellow between the veins and drop early in Aug → magnesium short after potash feeding or on light soil → Epsom salts foliar spray at 20 g per litre in Jun, repeated twice a fortnight apart. Lush growth and little blossom →
Pests, diseases and problems
Olive-brown blotches on leaves, early leaf fall, and dark corky scabs on the fruit
Apple scab, a fungus that overwinters on fallen leaves and is worst in wet springs
Rake up and remove the leaves in autumn, prune in winter to open the crown to air, and choose a variety with a good reputation for health, such as 'Evereste', when planting.
White powdery coating on young shoots and leaves in spring, shoot tips stunted
Powdery mildew, encouraged by dry soil
Cut out the white shoot tips as soon as they show and again at winter pruning. Mulch and water young trees through dry spells.
Sunken, cracked patches of bark, often ringing a branch, which dies beyond that point
Apple canker, a fungus entering through wounds, worse on heavy, wet soil
Cut the branch back to healthy wood well below the canker in dry weather and bin the prunings. Improve drainage round the tree.
Tufts of white fluff on bark and round old pruning cuts, with knobbly swellings beneath
Woolly aphid
Scrub colonies off with a stiff brush and water in spring before they spread; earwigs and ladybirds eat them, so avoid tidying every crevice.
Young leaves eaten into holes and loosely webbed together in April and May
Winter moth caterpillars
Fit a grease band round the trunk and the stake in October and keep it sticky until April to stop the wingless females climbing up. Blue tits take a great many.
Blossom wilts and shoots look scorched, the dead leaves hanging on, with the shoot tip bent like a crook
Fireblight, a bacterial disease of the apple family
Cut affected branches back at least 30 cm into healthy wood (60 cm on large branches), cleaning the blades between cuts, and bin or burn the prunings.
Pruning
Pruning and care
Cut out suckers from the rootstock below the graft. Water 20 litres weekly in the first 2 summers and keep a 1 m mulched circle; remove the stake after 3 years. Fruit is left for birds or picked Oct for jelly.
Good to knowBlossom, then small fruits for jelly and wildlife; an excellent pollination partner for eating apples.
Growing a crab apple tree in pots
A crab apple on a dwarfing rootstock (M27, M9 or M26) will grow in a pot for 5 to 10 years. Start with a 50 to 60 cm container of loam-based compost such as John Innes No 3, with the graft union well above the surface. Water is the limit: daily in summer once the tree is in leaf, since one drought in June can shed the whole crop of fruit. Replace the top 5 cm of compost each March, and every third winter lift the tree, tease out the roots and repot in fresh compost.
A crab apple tree: common questions
Can you eat crab apples?
Yes, all crab apples are edible, but most are too sour and hard to eat raw. They are high in pectin and make an excellent clear jelly; 'John Downie' and 'Jelly King' are the best for it. As with any apple, do not eat the pips in quantity.
Will a crab apple pollinate my apple tree?
Yes, a crab apple in flower at the same time will pollinate almost any eating or cooking apple within bee range. Crab apples carry a great deal of blossom over a long period, which is why 'Golden Hornet', 'Evereste' and 'John Downie' are planted in orchards for that purpose.
When do you prune a crab apple tree?
Prune in winter, between November and early March, while the tree is leafless. Crab apples need very little: take out dead, diseased, crossing and rubbing branches and leave the natural shape. Pull suckers off from below the graft in summer as they appear.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.
- Malus sylvestris (crab apple)RHS
- How to grow crab applesBBC Gardeners' World
- How to stake a treeRHS
- Malus 'Evereste'RHS