Hello,
I posted this over at Gardenweb, but then discovered this forum here. Seems like there are many more active espalier masters 'round these parts. Forgive me for the double-post.
I planted two apple whips that I intend to train as tiered cordons. I tended to the apple trees at my parents house when I was growing up, but these are the first apple trees I’ve planted myself.
I cut the whips back to just above a bud at the height of the first tier, and a few months later I have lots of good branch and leaf growth. On both whips, I’ve ended up with four buds turning into branches, when I only need three. I’m also getting some small leaves emerging from buds lower down the “trunk”. Should I prune off those extra leaves and branches this summer? Or should I wait next winter?
In the fall when leaves have dropped you will tie down the first tier. They will still be very pliable.
Late winter or early spring can eliminate all unneeded branches and you will head the leader at or near the level of the next tier above a set of 3 buds that are facing the right directions.
Mike, that’s very helpful, thanks for the quick reply. A couple of days ago I tied the trunk and the branch I’ll use for the leader to a vertical wire for support (we had some wicked thunderstorms the last few days and I was worried about too much wind). But I haven’t done anything with the tier branches. I’ll leave the tier branches and everything else growing blowing in the wind until the fall, and I’ll wait to prune until early spring!
little off topic but were do you guys get the galvanized metal wire. I can only find it with regular steel and it rusts very quick or is already rusted in the store
cian
