Rootstock and Pollination Decisions Made Easy

Choosing an apple tree can be rewarding - but for many home growers, two words quickly cause confusion: rootstock and pollination.

They sound technical, a bit specialist, and easy to get wrong.

In reality, these terms are simply the foundations of how your apple tree will grow and fruit. Getting them right makes a huge difference to long-term success.

These two decisions matter more than most people realise.

When these choices are well matched to your space and situation, apple growing becomes simpler, more reliable, and far more rewarding.

Rootstock determines

• how big your tree will eventually become
• how soon it produces fruit
• how well it copes with your soil and conditions.

Pollination affects whether you get a good crop at all. 

Here at One Planet Organics Tree Nursery, we’re often asked the same questions. 

 - and that’s exactly why we write these guide articles. We want to empower our customers to make informed, confident decisions, rather than feeling overwhelmed by jargon or guesswork. You don’t need to be an expert, and you don’t need to memorise charts or technical terms.

In this guide, we’ll explain rootstock and pollination in clear, practical terms, focusing on what the key information for home growers and small-scale producers.

By the end, you’ll understand how these choices affect your apple trees and we hope you’ll be more confident to make the selections that best suit your garden, orchard, or growing plans.

What is a Rootstock – and how Rootstock choices impact your apple tree

Almost all apple trees are grafted.

This means the fruiting variety you choose - the part (often referred to as scion* wood) that determines flavour, use, and harvest time - is joined onto a separate root system known as the rootstock.

(*scion wood is cuttings taken from the variety of apple tree you want to reproduce.)

While the variety decides what the apples taste like, the rootstock controls how the tree behaves.

The rootstock determines

• the eventual size and vigor of the tree 
• how quickly it comes into fruit 
• how well it copes with different soils and conditions.

Choosing the right rootstock is one of the most important decisions you’ll make when buying an apple tree. This is particularly true for home growers where space, maintenance, and long-term manageability really matter.

What rootstocks we use 

Here at One Planet Organics Nursery, we graft onto a carefully selected range of rootstocks that suit organic, low-input growing and a wide range of garden and orchard settings. 

Rather than offering every option available, we focus on rootstocks that are proven, reliable, and appropriate for UK conditions.

We use M26, MM106, M111, and M116, each chosen for specific characteristics and growing situations.

M26

• a compact rootstock, ideal for smaller gardens or situations where space is limited
• relatively quick to start fruiting and are easy to manage, prune, and harvest
• benefits from staking or support, particularly in the early years
• an excellent choice for growers who want good crops without a large tree 
• works well as cordons, which are fab for gardens with really limited space

MM106

• one of the most versatile and widely used rootstocks for home growers
• produces a medium-sized tree that balances productivity with manageability,
• suitable for gardens, paddocks, and small orchards
• adaptable to many soil types and offers good anchorage once established, which is why it’s often recommended as a dependable all-round option.

M111

• more vigorous rootstock, producing a larger, tougher tree
• well suited to orchards, agroforestry systems, and more exposed or drought-prone sites.
• can take a little longer to come into fruit but reward patience with strong growth, resilience, and longevity
• ideal where space allows and low-input, long-term production is the priority.

M116

• A newer rootstock that combines controlled vigour with improved disease resistance and strong anchorage
• produces a medium-sized tree similar to MM106 but with added resilience, making it a good choice for organic growers looking for reliability and reduced maintenance
• suits a wide range of sites and is particularly useful where soil conditions are variable.

By selecting the right rootstock, you’re shaping how your apple tree will grow for decades to come. Matching rootstock choice to your available space, soil, and expectations makes apple growing easier, healthier, and far more enjoyable from the very start.

A common mistake is planting trees too close together.

Though this doesn't seem like an issue when planting baby trees, as the trees mature and get larger, you can run into problems like

• restricted access
• rubbing branches and damage
• not enough air flow which can lead to disease, less dependable pollination and less fruit

Here is our Apple Rootstock in the UK at a Quick Glance table, which also indicates ideal spacing

Rootstock	Mature Height (m)	Staking Needed	Mulching & Care	Time to Cropping	Typical Yield (kg/tree)	Planting Distance (m)	Best For
M26	2.5–3.0	Yes (long-term)	Regular mulching important	2–3 yrs	15–30	2.5- 3.5	Home gardens, easy harvesting
MM106	3.5–4.5	Short-term only	Mulch during establishment	3–4 yrs	30–60+	3.5- 5	Gardens, small orchards,  versatile
M111	4.5–6.0	Usually not	Mulch first few years	5 yrs	50–100+	4.5–6.0	Orchards, agroforestry, challenging sites, exposed
M116	3.5–4.5	Usually not	Light mulching helpful	3–4 yrs	35–70	3.5– 5	Organic & low-input systems

Apple Tree Pollination Made Simple. Getting Reliable Apple Tree Crops Without the Stress 

Most apple trees need pollen from a compatible apple variety to set good crops.

This pollen is carried by insects - mainly bees - as trees blossom in spring. As long as two compatible varieties flower at roughly the same time and are within reach of pollinating insects, fruit set can occur.

Pollination groups are simply a way of describing flowering periods. Trees in the same group, or in neighbouring groups, will usually pollinate each other successfully.

You don’t need perfect matches or exact timing - overlapping flowering is what matters.

In many gardens, pollination is already taken care of. 

• Nearby apple trees, crab apples, or even wild apples in hedgerows can provide suitable pollen, meaning a single tree can often crop well without any additional planting.
• If there's lots of other apples growing in your community its likely to be fine, look within a 30m radius of your garden and see what's growing.
• If in doubt we recommend growing several trees in your garden.

When deciding which apple trees to buy and plant, the most ideal decision is to choose varieties with slightly different flowering times so that you can create a longer flowering season.

This helps reduce risk from unpredictable spring conditions such as late frosts, cold snaps.

In temperatures below 5'c pollination can be severely reduced. All flower parts can be killed in as little as 30minutes below 0'c

During storms, or prolonged wet weather pollen can also be damaged and it’s very unlikely that the insects will be flying during those times.

So having multiple varieties flowering over a long period spreads the risk. e.g so in years with particularly stormy or frosty weather in Spring, the early flowering varieties may not get pollinated, but the mid and late flowering ones will be successful

Simple Rule for Customers

• Same season = reliable pollination
• Adjacent seasons = usually compatible
• Focus on overlap, not exact dates

Apple trees generally flower between mid-April and late May, though the exact timing varies by variety and local climate. Most individual trees bloom for about a week, but the collective "apple blossom season" can stretch from March to June. 

 

We have simplified things on our website and indicate flowering times as early, mid or late. You might be more familiar with how RHS categorise pollination, Groups 1 – 7. Here is a rough translation.

• Early = Group 1, 2  =   Mid-April to late-April
• Mid = Group 3, 4   = Late-April to mid-May 
• Late = Group 5, 6, 7  = Mid-May to late-May

We advise not to get too caught up in the dates as these can vary by several weeks year to year and are also affected by localised microclimate and latitude.               

 

Instead, focus on the basics

1. pick a rootstock that suits your space and soil
2. pair varieties with overlapping flowering times for dependable fruit.
3. Spread flowering periods slightly to reduce risk from spring frost, storms, or poor weather.

To make it even simpler, we include rootstock and pollination notes on every apple variety page. You can see, at a glance, which rootstocks suit the variety, it’s flowering/pollination season - no charts or guesswork needed.

Just head on over to browse our Dessert, Cooking or Cider Trees - to start your apple tree journey. 

Apple growing is a long-term journey.

By planning thoughtfully and using the guidance on our website, you’ll have the confidence to choose trees that fit & suit your garden, enjoy higher-quality fruit, and make your orchard a success from day one.