Gardening: RHS autumn festival is the apple of their eye

Just one bite of a ripe, crisp apple picked straight off the tree should be enough of a mouth-watering experience to make most gardeners want to grow at least one variety in their own garden.

Apples are the taste of autumn and there are many apple events at this time of year around the country, inviting people to try new varieties, offering growing advice and looking at how to avoid pests and diseases.

Yet apples are not difficult to grow and there are enough varieties to cater for virtually any amount of space you may have, even if you only have room for one in a container.

The RHS, whose festival A Taste Of Autumn runs from October 21-24, celebrating apples and other autumn produce with events around the UK, has now launched a new apple guide offering tips on choosing a variety, cultivation and troubleshooting.

Apples can be grown in a range of forms, including traditional open-centred trees, cordons (single stem with short side-shoots) and espaliers (trained to grow on a flat plane, often symmetrical and against a wall or fence). You need to choose your tree according to the space available.

There is also a wide range of rootstocks, from dwarfing to vigorous, but for a medium-sized bush tree or a cordon, choose the semi-dwarfing M26 rootstock.

To crop well, apple trees also need pollination from another tree, so be sure to choose varieties from the same or a close pollination group.

Bare-root trees can be planted when dormant, from late autumn until early spring. Apples thrive in a well-drained soil, at least 60cm (2ft) deep. Add well-rotted organic matter before planting and mulch and water through the growing season until your tree is growing well. Apples prefer a sheltered, frost-free position in full sun, though providing they receive half a day's sunshine in the growing season they will tolerate some shade.

Once established, your apple tree will need very little care throughout the year, but a little love will go a long way to keeping it healthy. Keep it weed-free and water it during dry spells and when the fruit starts to swell, particularly if it is newly planted or in a container.

In early spring sprinkle a balanced general fertiliser (such as Growmore) around the base. To ensure the best crop, prune the tree every year. Apple trees can suffer from a variety of common problems such as brown rot, apple scab and other diseases, often derived from poor levels of calcium, erratic watering or wet summers. The RHS apple guide offers advice on how to alleviate these problems.

Most apples will be ready to pick sometime between August and October, depending on the variety. As with most fruit, the obvious way of testing if an apple is ready for picking is to taste it. The other telltale sign is if there are a few lying on the ground around the tree (called windfalls). The fruit should have swelled to a good size and started to colour up.

The RHS's recommended varieties include 'Blenheim Orange', used early for cooking, 'Discovery', a red-flushed dessert apple, 'Egremont Russet', a dessert type which is good for storage, and 'Pixie', a Cox's type apple which produces small fruits ideal for children.

Full details of how to grow your own apples and other fruit and vegetables can be found on the RHS website at www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own