Those are some absolutely gorgeous espaliers!
I’ve just grafted 4 European pears with espalier in mind. I’ll be lucky to get the first cordon started soon…though I am a compete amateur at it.
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Phil,
Just remember … most luck is actually created by its beneficiary. So just do it. Luck is just one of the results of trying and taking a chance.
With pears especilly it is important to bend the branches down and tie them off while the are very very young. They are extremely flexible at that time. Then even in the first year of growth they harden off and are much more subject to craking if bent too much. I have had pear shoots grow 5+ feet in a single year I have even bent a brach 180 degrees to go left when it grew growing straight to the right.
Next time I get up to the orchard I’ll take photo. I have it here on the forum someplace but its from a few years ago.
EDIT ADD ON… I just noticed this. If you look at the Gravenstein apple ( 7th from the end) it shows exactly what I did to an apple more recently.
Mike
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I beg pardon. Bylines often give no indication. Nutting Bumpus is an apple, but I am a guy. I wonder if Frank P. Matthews has sent scions to anyone on this side the pond
I may have to find out how to get that done, establish that earlier ripening Morello & name the cultivar after you.
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I’d say the training part is very straight forward. Getting branches and shoots to grow where you want them might be a bit harder.
And as you say, there is no such thing as luck…but I’m stuck using the term since it’s so common.
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Phil,
Over the last 3 years time/distance/physical constraints meant that I could not and did not pay as much attention to maintaining the picture perfect espalier and I was forced to pay more attention to fostering the benefits of espalier even as I had to curtail my efforts at maintaining the form. I concetrated on maintaining a very open architecture, maintaining horizontal growth, (even if not always symmetrically)
even if sometimes the tree was not as two dimentional as at first, keeping the height at 7± feet.
I would say that my non-stone fruit trees are still espalierish althought some of the arms are not as distinct. Some of my trees have become more of a “fruit wall” rather than a “fruit fan” .
I started this in 2011 and some of my older postings have some really nice photos of how things were
Mike
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I’ll take time to look through your past posts in the future.
Thanks.
Espalier really is a smart way to go for residential growers I’d say. I need to do more.
Here are a couple of old pictures I found. There is alot of espalier info here from many in the past
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50 year old azalea. About 4-5 ft high. A white one also 50 yrs old is 3 ft and only pruned to remove dead shoots.
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Dennis, that’s a beauty! Mine was looking beautiful until a month ago, the deer stripped it clean, and they got my rhodies too.
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Is that common for deer? They’ve always gone for my fruit trees and left my rhododendrons alone. Now you’ve got me worried, I figured they were safe as they’ve been ignored up till now.
I’ve heard they eat hostas, too. I mostly only grow edibles though.
@tbg9b, @evilpaul, the whitetail deer around me eat azaleas and hostas like candy. I think rhododendrons get 2nd priority. Rhodos are native to to where I live and there’s plenty of wild ones around.
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I guess they haven’t massacred my rhodos yet because they’re right beside the house and the dogs go off if they get too close to the house.
Hostas are edible, not only to deer but to people too
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I have 10 apricots on my grafted tree. 3 Harcots and the rest Robada. I am going to net the tree in a couple of days - in hopes that the birds won’t be able to get to them. I’ve never tried to grow them before . . . so looking forward to seeing what a Virginia-grown apricot tastes like!
Harcots - early may 2024
Robadas
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Here comes those watermelon/raspberry flavored CHE fruit…
And now my Sure Crop strawberries are producing.
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