Glossary · Orchard
Bush
Also written bush orchard, intensive orchard. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
A small tree on a dwarfing or semi-dwarfing rootstock with a short stem, planted at high density and cropping within a few years of planting. Most cider fruit grown commercially since the mid twentieth century comes from bush orchards.
- Subject
- Orchard
- Also written
- bush orchard, intensive orchard
In more detail
Bush orchards traded longevity for productivity. Trees come into bearing in three to five years rather than ten, are picked or machine-harvested from the ground, and are replaced after perhaps twenty-five years. Yield per hectare is several times that of a standard orchard.
The consequence for the landscape is that bush orchards support very little of the deadwood, epiphyte and invertebrate life that makes old standard orchards a priority habitat. The two systems are not substitutes ecologically even when they grow the same cultivars.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Orchard
Standard
A tree grown on a vigorous rootstock with a clear trunk of about 1.8 to 2.1 metres before the first branch, forming a large canopy that can be grazed or mown beneath.
Orchard
Half-standard
A tree with a clear stem of roughly 1.2 to 1.5 metres — lower than a standard, higher than a bush — allowing limited grazing while keeping the canopy within reach.
Orchard
Cordon
A tree trained as a single stem, usually at an angle against wires or a wall, with fruiting spurs held close to that stem. Used for very high density planting and for trials rather than for commercial cider fruit.
Orchard
M9
A dwarfing apple rootstock from the Malling series, producing a small, early-bearing tree that requires permanent staking and good soil moisture. Standard for intensive dessert orchards and used for some intensive cider planting.
Orchard
MM106
A semi-dwarfing apple rootstock bred for woolly aphid resistance, giving a self-supporting half-standard or large bush. It has been the workhorse of twentieth-century cider bush orchards.
Orchard
Traditional orchard
An orchard of widely spaced standard or half-standard trees on vigorous rootstocks, with a permanent grassland floor that is grazed or mown. In the United Kingdom it is a recognised priority habitat.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
NIAB (incorporating East Malling Research)
NIAB · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
East Malling developed the M-series apple rootstocks that determine tree size in essentially every modern orchard, cider orchards included. The authority CiderHQ uses for rootstock behaviour.
Traditional Orchard Habitat Inventory and orchard loss surveys
People’s Trust for Endangered Species / Natural England · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24. The traditional orchard campaign pages were reached and confirmed, but the orchard-loss figures CiderHQ wants from this body sit in survey outputs rather than on the campaign page, and were not located in this pass.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.