Limelight Apple Trees

Limelight Apple Trees

Limelight Apple Trees produce mid-season eating apples that store well. They were specifically bred with the amateur grower in mind and are really easy to grow. They produce heavy crops of yellow-green eating apples that are deliciously crisp, sharp and refreshing. The apples ripen on the tree successively from September to early November and keep for a few weeks, so you have a long eating season. The windfalls are excellent for juicing. Limelight apples are well named; the yellow-green fruits are almost luminous and contrast beautifully against the dark green foliage making this a really attractive specimen tree.

Browse our full range of apple trees or see all the fruit trees we sell.

Features:

• Fruit: Eating. Yellow-green. Medium sized. Sharp flavour and crisp, juicy texture
• Pollination: Group D
• Harvesting: September. Stores for a few weeks
• Characteristics: Spur fruiting, hardy, heavy cropping
• Suitable for: Training, freestanding, organic cultivation

Great for your garden:

Limelight is best planted in an open, sunny spot, away from frost pockets. They are not self-fertile, which means they need other apples planted nearby to aid pollination. For suitable partners, you can view our full range of apple trees here.

They are tidy and compact making them suitable for small gardens. They look great in an orchard, as a specimen in a lawn or worked into an informal or cottage garden planting scheme.

Why not try lining your driveway with apple trees? Their blossom is very attractive to bees and looks beautiful in spring, followed by their highly decorative and delicious fruits through summer and well into autumn.

Look out for: These trees can have some susceptibility to scab. This can be controlled for the following season by pruning out infected branches, removing any fallen fruit or debris and burning.

Did You Know? 

Bred by the legendary Henry Ermen, who cross-bred Greensleeves and Discovery, which are both popular garden varieties with fantastic flavour and great disease resistance.

How to plant Malus domestica Limelight trees:

Bare root trees are available for planting between November and March, whilst container grown plants can be bought all year round - although planting in winter is preferable.

Apple trees like a sunny sheltered site with a free draining soil. Dig a hole no deeper than the root ball but around three times their diameter. Fork over the bottom of the hole and add some well rotted compost or manure, as well as dressing of Rootgrow mcycorrhizal fungi.

Place the tree in the hole and back fill with soil, firming carefully into place. Stake in the direction of the prevailing wind.

Keep well watered in dry weather and top dress with a general-purpose fertiliser as the plant comes into growth in spring. Trained apples are pruned in summer, and standards in winter.

Spacing Limelight 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.

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.

After you plant an apple tree, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather and weed around it. Both of these will be necessary for at least a year after planting. We recommend using a mulch mat as well.

The best tip for helping your tree to establish and quickly become mature and productive is to remove all the fruit that it produces in the first year after planting, as soon as the flowers fade. This will give the tree a chance to develop its roots, which are the foundation of the tree's strength, and sturdy branches that can bear the weight of a heavy crop without snapping.

All fruit trees will need formative pruning during their first years. Although this is not complicated, it is important to research and understand the process so that you can apply it to your particular tree and situation.

Harvesting Limelight apples:
Your trees should crop September - November. Limelight apples will store in a cool, frost-free place for a few weeks.
Read more about picking and storing apples here.

Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.