Mamuang, I did the same thing to my Liberty- now I call the style mudified central leader …
My pear is more successful, but I still have a huge amount to learn about pruning.
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Those need more fruit. That’s not enough to totally ruin the quality.
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Marknmt,
Yes, my pears and apples are more like modified central lead while my stone fruit resemble open vase style.
I read up Cornell’s Tall Spindle style. It is very easy to understand but does not suit my purpose.
I agree there is so much to learn about pruning. To me, it is the most difficult concept to grasp.
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Alcedo
I’m hoping for something like those trees someday. Its taking longer and costing more than expected. How old are those tree?
I believe many American university borrowed this technique from Europe and promoted it heavily. I call it the Cornell Kool aid.
I did a tour of an apple orchard at “Top of the World” Arizona. Row after row of open vase apple trees representing about ten cultivars. Some going back to the 1920’s (Esopus Spitzenburg) to support a mining camp. The only issue I saw was bark peeling on the south-west side from late freezes freezing the awakening cambium layer—should have painted the trunks white.
Our local, ‘overly expensive’ orchard is planted with all of their apples in spindle form. The quality (taste) of the apples are ok. Only their Jonagold’s are excellent.
I agree Mamuang. My trees are finally producing as my pruning was from advice and reading books and watching videos. I think it is worth it to have a professional ‘orchardist’ visit our orchards in the beginning. Watching a video and pruning is like learning how to ‘knit’ over the phone. All of my stone fruit is ‘open vase’ and all of my apples are ‘central leader’ they are all on dwarf and semi dwarf rootstock. While in Europe I noticed their apples are almost all grown using the ‘spindle’ technique. They produce like crazy!
The new ( old) from Europe is the fruiting wall. I may plant another row and try this pruning technique.
John your orchard looks great!
“Watching video and pruning is like learning to knit over the phone”. Love the comparison. No wonder I have hard time with pruning. I can’t knit 
Different people use different styles to suit their purposes. Maximizing yield is not my goal and continuing pruning required by Tall Spindle is not my cup of tea.
John,
What is the different between a fruiting wall and an espalier?
One of the reason commercial orchards Use the tall spindle is because you can teach anyone how to prune them very quickly. Your. just removing two to three of the biggest branches and simplifying the branches columnar style so more light reaches the apples and you can fit more limbs on a tree.
Tradtionally an espalier is grown against a wall, fence or trellis. a fruiting wall is a row of trees planted close together and sometimes held in place by posts and wires (they are free standing) thus forming a wall when mature.
I’m just trying to find information about fruiting walls now. It’s like growing tall spindle, but then you basically take a trimmer down the length of the row in early June trimming them almost like you would a hedge. Another space saving way for me.
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If I knew how easy posting pictures were I would of taken some nice late summer pictures with apples on them.
I visited this Apple Orchard, and took some pictures So it’s not my property.
in my country, tree form Spindle style is the most common at commercial growers
Variety: Nicoter.
age trees, I estimate eight years old.
Rootstock: unknown to me.
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John
I see several of the key words - “simplify” and “columnar”. Looks like you have also been drinking the Cornell Kool Aid!
yes I have read and watched video on the subject before doing it. I guess all pruning methods have key words to them. Works for me. When ever I read or hear someone use that phrase I assume it’s derogatory. I thought Cornell knew a few things about the subject.
They are the experts! No one is more knowledgeable and no one has done more to promote the benefits of high density planting. I’m not trying to be overly critical. The 3X12 spacing (over 1200 tree/acre) that they recommend is perfect for many growing area, but is probably too dense for my area. Many folks blindly follow the advice, which requires a huge investment in trees. I call the 3X12 spacing the “Cornell Kool Aid.” .
I have about 700 tree in the ground using their methods, but on several different in the in row spacing. 12 feet between rows is fine, but it looks like 3 feet between trees is too close for my area. Fruit trees are expensive, and from what I understand, many commercial growers in NC have the same concerns about the economics of the suggested density. In many cases the cost of the extra trees for the closer spacing will not pay for itself. A Penn State publication I saw suggested the optimum density for their area to be a lot less than 1200 tree/acre.
It may take a few more years to determine the density that produces the best net profit per acre for my area, but I’m pretty sure it will be a lot less than 1200 tree/acre.
Cornell is essentially providing information for NY growers. Even in NY I gather that growers tend to take their recs with a grain of salt- but the best ones do take them seriously.
Growers can get more money for their apples in NYS than growers in many other areas, I’m sure. Much of Cornell research is from two stations and NY is a very big state. They know very little of the specifics of weather where I grow my fruit in southern NY and even that difference shows
The point is that I don’t think anyone should be drinking the cool-aid and betting the farm on a hundred acres of high density planting until they have trialed it out on a small section of land, even if the land is in NYS. More pioneers starve on the trail than hit a bonanza. God bless the gamblers who show us survivors the way.
Those of us just trying to fill our root cellars with enough fruit to get into spring don’t have all that much resting on how we space or prune our trees. A little risk just makes things interesting and educational.
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