@galinas if 60+mph winds are common for your area, a typical temporary structure may not stand up for long. We generally get 90+mph winds here every winter, and I can’t tell you how many prefab sheds and the like we see blown around every year. (One neighbor had to retrieve his shed 3 times from my property, after which it was finally too damaged to reconstruct anymore).
Not saying it can’t be done, but it takes some care to build and anchor the structure in a way that it can stay put. Often that requires more structural members than you’d like to leave up during the growing season.
My stone fruit trees in or outdoors usually have fruit no more than 18 inches off the ground. These are fourth leaf trees that started bearing in yr two.
Sometimes I think about training an apricot tree a foot off the ground so I could actually cover it over winter and easily protect it from frosts. All rodents would need to be zealously controlled. If I was in z 4 I’d try this in scale for sure. I’d love to have a tree with a 2’height and 20’ spread.
True, but you could put plastic under the tree while fruit ripens (you’d want to control weeds then anyway), and 2’ would be so easy to cover up in winter- you could even do it with leaves like I used to do with figs. And it would look so cool.
What about to create a horizontal espalier? You can have a post right near tree trunk, and posts 10’ from the trunk, around the site you want your tree to be spread. Put wire between the posts in radial way. Then train the grows how would you do on espalier, but horizontal. Though, it may be a challenge to get to the middle of the tree, when it full grown, but you always can cut couple paths through for yourself. I am not going to experiment on this through, don’t have even 2’ extra, forget about 20 .
Yes, no matter what it would be like a 2D espalier form, either a bit free or with a specific design and would require tying- although you might be able to just sink some pieces of rebar- moving them around as needed to tie branches to. I believe more support is needed to keep fruit laden branches against a wall. You might be able to develop as strong enough branch structure to hold branches at a fixed point above the ground without support once you built it. The proof would only be in the doing, though.
I think I will try it as soon as I retire from my day job of tending orchards.
I will report next spring - the first structure we are building is for Persimmon. I am not sure if we will be able to complete two of them over summer, will see how it goes…
Beautiful set up fruitnut, I am trying to do some fruit tree growing in my greenhouse, it is a learning curve for sure. The most difficult part is keeping the temperatures in check.
The discussion here on low fruit tree espalier has peeked my interest. Lower fruiting branches will allow easier mulching which is key to winter survival in my neck of the woods, especially in years where the cold weather hits before the snow cover is sufficient.
I am not going to experiment on this through, don’t have even 2’ extra, forget about 20 
.