Arthur Turner Apple Trees

Arthur Turner Cooking Apple Trees

One of the best cooking apple trees for a garden

Arthur Turner apples are perfect for apple sauce, and cook down to a soft, richly flavoured purée. They are also excellent for baking, but a bit too soft when cooked for pies and tarts.
This is an early cropping tree and so the fruit does not store well past about two weeks, but ripening happens over a period of several weeks meaning they can be picked fresh over an extended period. At the end of the season, the fruit has sweetened sufficiently to be eaten straight off the tree.

Browse our range of apple trees or see the full variety of fruit trees.

Great in the Garden

Arthur Turner is special among apple trees in having won an RHS Award of Garden Merit for its flowers. Plant it where it will often be seen in late spring. It is a strong growing variety, not quite up with Bramley, but much bigger than say Laxton's Superb. So once established (give it a head start of 2-3 years) it is a superb host for a medium sized rambling rose.

Features

• Use: Cooking. Turns to a soft purée. Wonderfully creamy and completely unlike the taste of a Bramley.
• Training. Because it is a spur bearer, Arthur Turner is suitable for growing as a cordon or espalier.
• Tree's growth habit: Strong. Upright form.
• Pollination: Arthur Turner is in pollination Group C. As a partially self-fertile apple, it will produce some fruit all by itself, but the quality and yield is much improved if it is pollinated by another apple tree from pollination Groups B, C or D. Or by a crab apple tree, of course. 
• Harvest: From late August (in a good year) for cooking apples, and until end of September for sweeter fruit. Apples are best used fresh from the tree or within a couple of weeks of picking.

See our Guide to Apple Tree Pollination for a full list of partners & more tips about pollination.

Rootstocks:
All of our trees are grown on MM106 rootstocks, except for the cordons, which are on M9. These control the size of the tree

Did you know?

Raised by Mr Charles Turner of Slough in the early 1900's as Turner's Prolific, renamed Arthur Turner in 1913 and re-introduced in 1915. Charles Turner was also responsible for introducing a tasty little apple called Cox's Orange Pippin, which has become more than wee bit popular. 

Notes on growing Arthur Turner trees:
All apple trees prefer a rich soil with decent drainage, protection from the wind and plenty of sun. Apple trees like clay soil, as long as it is not prone to bad waterlogging. This tree is suitable for organic growing in the more humid West and South of Britain, where scab is more common.

Prepare your site before planting:
Improving the soil in advance of planting your apple trees will help them establish quickly and be productive for years to come. Dig a hole approximately 1 metre square (not round) and 40 cms deep. Remove any weeds, roots stones and rubbish and mix in a bucket of well rotted compost or manure per tree. Make sure some of it ends up below the roots. Return some of the soil and position the tree so the graft or union is about 5 cms (2") above the finished soil level. Half standards and bushes will need staking and tying. Bang the stake into the hole, to the windward side of the tree before planting as it saves damaging the roots late. Apply Rootgrow if you are using any and return the rest of the soil firming it gently around the roots. Water really well, even if it is wet. Watering helps settle the soil around the roots which is good for quick establishment.

Spacing apple trees:
Freestanding bushes: 12-18 feet (4-6 metres) between trees and rows.
Freestanding half-standards: 18-30 feet (6-10 metres) between trees and rows.
In general, allow 1 more metre between rows than there is between each tree in the row.
Wire-trained cordons can be planted in rows 60-100cms apart.
Espaliers need to be spaced at 10-18 feet (3-6 metres) apart.

Watch our video on how to plant a fruit tree for full instructions on planting a bush or half-standard sized tree.
If you are growing a maiden sized apple tree into a freestanding tree, a bamboo cane is enough support.
If you are growing a cordon or espalier, you will need to install training wires to support them.
Remember to water establishing apple trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Apple Tree Planting Accessories:
For bush and half standard apple trees, our tree planting pack includes a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a biodegradable mulch mat with pegs, which protects the soil at the base of your tree from drying out and stops weeds from sprouting.
We recommend using Rootgrow - mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all new trees, especially if your soil is on the poor side.