Bramley (Bramley's Seedling) apple

Malus domestica

The definitive English cooking apple.

Discovered as a chance seedling in the 19th century, Bramley's Seedling rapidly became the most widely-grown cooking apple in the UK - popular with both commercial growers and gardeners.  It cooks down to a puree, with a good flavour.

 

Last updated 21 Aug 2010 by Orange Pippin.

Summary

  • Parentage: Unknown
  • Origin: Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom
  • Introduced: 1837
  • Orange Pippin Cultivar ID: 100900

Identification

  • Fruit colour: Green
  • Flesh colour: Cream
  • Fruit size: Large
  • Bultitude apple group: 3. Flushed / striped, smooth, acidic, culinary

Using

  • Good for cooking
  • Good for juice
  • Good for hard cider
  • Cooking result: Puree
  • Flavour quality: Very good
  • Flavour style: Sharper
  • Ripening period: Mid-Late season
  • Use / keeping: 3 months or more

Growing

  • Cropping: Heavy
  • Flowering period: Mid-Late season
  • Flowering group: 3
  • Fertility: Self-sterile
  • Triploid: Yes
  • Vigour: Very large
  • Biennial tendency
  • Precocity: Slow to start bearing
  • Fruit bearing: Partial tip-bearer
  • Attractive blossom
  • General disease resistance: Good

Climate

  • Suitable for temperate climates

Other qualities

  • RHS Award of Garden Merit 1993

Mature tree heights for this variety (approximate)

Rootstock Soil quality
Poor Below average Average Above average Very good
P22 3.0 ft
0.9 m		 3.8 ft
1.2 m		 4.5 ft
1.4 m		 5.3 ft
1.6 m		 6.0 ft
1.8 m
M27 4.0 ft
1.2 m		 5.0 ft
1.5 m		 6.0 ft
1.8 m		 7.0 ft
2.1 m		 8.0 ft
2.5 m
M9 6.0 ft
1.8 m		 7.5 ft
2.3 m		 9.0 ft
2.8 m		 10.5 ft
3.2 m		 12.0 ft
3.7 m
Bud.9 6.0 ft
1.8 m		 7.5 ft
2.3 m		 9.0 ft
2.8 m		 10.5 ft
3.2 m		 12.0 ft
3.7 m
Geneva 16 6.0 ft
1.8 m		 7.5 ft
2.3 m		 9.0 ft
2.8 m		 10.5 ft
3.2 m		 12.0 ft
3.7 m
Geneva 11 7.0 ft
2.1 m		 8.8 ft
2.7 m		 10.5 ft
3.2 m		 12.3 ft
3.8 m		 14.0 ft
4.3 m
M26 8.0 ft
2.5 m		 10.0 ft
3.1 m		 12.0 ft
3.7 m		 14.0 ft
4.3 m		 16.0 ft
4.9 m
Geneva 30 8.0 ft
2.5 m		 10.0 ft
3.1 m		 12.0 ft
3.7 m		 14.0 ft
4.3 m		 16.0 ft
4.9 m
MM102 8.0 ft
2.5 m		 10.0 ft
3.1 m		 12.0 ft
3.7 m		 14.0 ft
4.3 m		 16.0 ft
4.9 m
M7 9.0 ft
2.8 m		 11.3 ft
3.5 m		 13.5 ft
4.1 m		 15.8 ft
4.8 m		 18.0 ft
5.5 m
M116 9.0 ft
2.8 m		 11.3 ft
3.5 m		 13.5 ft
4.1 m		 15.8 ft
4.8 m		 18.0 ft
5.5 m
MM106 10.0 ft
3.1 m		 12.5 ft
3.8 m		 15.0 ft
4.6 m		 17.5 ft
5.4 m		 20.0 ft
6.1 m
MM111 12.0 ft
3.7 m		 15.0 ft
4.6 m		 18.0 ft
5.5 m		 21.0 ft
6.4 m		 24.0 ft
7.4 m
Bud.118 14.0 ft
4.3 m		 17.5 ft
5.4 m		 21.0 ft
6.4 m		 24.5 ft
7.5 m		 28.0 ft
8.6 m
M25 16.0 ft
4.9 m		 20.0 ft
6.1 m		 24.0 ft
7.4 m		 28.0 ft
8.6 m		 32.0 ft
9.8 m
From an idea by N. Buck - more details.

Visitor comments

(Use the form at the bottom to add your own comments about this variety)

14 Aug 2010 David StuartTYNE & WEAR, United Kingdom
A good and useful website. My Bramley (about five years old) this year has produced a large quanitity of smallish apples. Should they have been thinned earlier in the season or will they still swell? David Stuart, Gateshead, UK, foxtrot_delta_sierra@yahoo.co.uk
14 Jun 2010 Mark FeiockNY, United States
saw delia's recipe for mincemeat and it called for bramley apples....what is a good substitute for this here in the states...thanks!!!
20 May 2010 ColensoQUEENSLAND, Australia
Have to disagree that the Bramley is unsuitable outside a large commercial orchard. My family home in the UK has a small orchard consisting of four small Bramleys that have been going strong since my grandparents planted them back in the fifties. Every year we get so many apples we have to give away vast quantities. But the rest store very well throughout winter in an apple rack. In my view, no English apple orchard, private or commercial, is complete without a Bramley, the best cooking apple, and a Cox Orange Pippin, the best desert apple, both symbolising the very quintessence of an English cottage garden.
16 May 2010 Jean LippettSOMERSET, United Kingdom
It may be different here in the UK, but my Bramley flowers at the beginning of the season, usually the second variety out of forty to come into blossom. Mine are huge vigorous trees, at least eighty years old, the branches are about twelve inches in diameter - when they go above thirty feet high we cut a couple of the highest branches out and they keep us in firewood for weeks. As the trunks are hollow it seems a good idea to take some of the weight off them. Ours are Crimson Bramleys, pretty red flushed fruit, many of them are very large, the size of two clenched fists. We get, at a guess, about ten wheelbarrows full of fruit from each tree, they've certainly repaid us well for the price my grandfather paid for them.
18 Apr 2010 Dave LiezenWA, United States
Bramley's being a triploid variety, it is sterile and requires another apple tree for pollination. Also, since Bramley's blooms very late, someone with room for only one other tree would do well to choose a self-fertile or partially self-fertile cultivar that blooms no earlier than mid-season in order to set Bramley fruit. A few possibilites that come to mind (no doubt there are more): John Grieve, Greensleeves, Kingston Black, Wolf River, Fiesta, Ellison's Orange, Northern Spy. Looking up the relatives of these cultivars may yield an option to suit your taste.
20 Mar 2010 DaveLEICS., United Kingdom
Like Cox's, Bramley's is a poor variety for growing outside of large commercial orchards because of its awkward pollination requirements. It is supposedly far better on a large root-stock. Agreed on the comment about modern supermarket Bramley's - very unripe, though good flavour - fruit picked riper is a lot less tart.
14 Mar 2010 Dave LiezenWA, United States
Bruno, If you are located in the States, look up Raintree Nursery via a search engine. They offer Bramley on semi-dwarf rootstock (EMLA 7) which their catalog indicates should grow to about eleven feet tall, and semi-standard (MM111) which I would guess may reach 17 feet. I have ordered five different fruit trees from this company (four apples: Liberty, Queen Cox, Kingston Black and Ashmead's Kernel; and one sour cherry: English Morello) and my trees are doing well. I hope for a first crop this season.
11 Dec 2009 Geoff BraceNORWICH, NORFOLK, United Kingdom
I don't really feel Bramley is "extremely tart". Very unripe ones (usually quite dark green) often found in supermarkets can be sharp. If allowed to ripen they can be eaten raw (I always steal a slice or two when cooking them) and need only a little sugar when cooked. Try adding sultanas or raisins to get the sweetness. This is a lovely apple.
23 Oct 2009 Peter WheatleyNEWCASTLE, NSW,, Australia
Unfortunately I have never seen them anywhere except Ireland and the UK.
07 Aug 2009 Bruno AlbaneseADELAIDE, Australia
Do you know where I may be able to buy Bramley apples??
13 May 2009 Peter WheatleyNEWCASTLE, NSW,, Australia
The Bramley is the definitive cooking apple. Vastly superior to all others when used in tarts and pies. Because of the extreme tartness it requires large quantities of sugar giving a moist well flavoured result.
25 Sep 2008 Maureen EbbinsSOUTHWELL, United Kingdom
The original bramley apple tree can be found in the garden of the Bramley Apple Public House in the main street in Southwell opposite Southwell Minster

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