Charles Ross Cooking Apple

Charles Ross is a classic English cooking apple best suited to pies, juice, and cider blending.

It produces a sweet-sharp flavour and is valued for its reliability and excellent storage life.

Features

• Versatile cooking apple, particularly good for pies
• Adds sweet-sharp tang to juice and cider
• Moderately vigorous, upright, hardy growth habit
• Performs well on chalky soils (sulphur shy)
• Produces dependable annual crops
• Keeps up to five months in cold storage
• High resistance to apple scab

Origins / Notes

Developed in the late 1800s by Charles Ross, head gardener at Welford Park Gardens in Berkshire, as a cross between Peasgood Nonsuch and Cox’s Orange Pippin. It remains a well-regarded heritage cooking apple.

Disease Resistance

High resistance to apple scab.

Pollination Season

Mid-season

Harvesting Season

Late season, typically October.

Storage

Keeps up to five months in cold storage. Best eating window is from late autumn through winter as flavour matures and balances over time.

Choosing your Rootstock

Please refer to our Rootstock Guide in the first instance.

Whereas varieties determine the type of apple you get, the rootstock determines the growing characteristics, vigour and ultimate height of the tree.

Selecting the right rootstock for your site and preference is just as important as the variety you chose. The different rootstocks we graft with and their uses are listed below.

M26 – Semi dwarf. Up to 3m high. Requires staking. Used for bush trees. Suitable for small gardens & allotments, for training into cordons & espaliers. Startsbfruiting after 2-3 years. Space bush trees 2-4m apart.

M116 – Medium. A semi-vigorous rootstock, with trees growing up to 3-4m high. Good for wet soil conditions. Start fruiting after 3-4 years.  Space trees 3.6m with 4.5m between the rows.

MM106 – Medium. A semi-vigorous rootstock, with trees growing up to 3-4m high. Good for half standards, espaliers, cordons. Start fruiting after 3-4 years. Space trees 3.6m with 4.5m between the rows.     

M111 – Large. A vigorous rootstock, with trees growing up to 4m high. Tolerates wet ground, more exposed sites, higher altitudes, and shallower soil conditions, has good disease resistance. Good for farms, larger smallholdings. Start fruiting after 4-5 years   Space trees 4-6m apart with 6m between the rows.

M25– Very Large. A very vigorous rootstock, with trees growing up to 6m (20ft) high. Grow as full or half standard. Ideal in poorer soil in exposed sites. Not ideal for the most gardens unless the soil is poor. Start fruiting after 5-6 years.  Space trees 4.5m apart with 6m between the rows.

Mid Season

For more information about pollination groups, please click here.