The espailer is nicely open now. The strong vruchtzetels that have been removed will release the secondary buds from the remaining 0.5 cm stump. These new small branches u grow a new vruchtzetel.
The Lentesnede on the underside of the frame branch, to stimulate growth in the lower frame branches, are done in the spring when the buds start to give leaves.
The growth-inhibiting saw cuts should be 1/3 deep and should be done in the spring when the buds sprout.
Roland, I see the blue marks on you put on the picture, I think for these 1/3 cuts. Would they go on in from the bottom or the top of the lateral branch? Bottom would make more sense to me since it would help with pulling the branch down; when you pull it down after cutting the cambiums will probably touch or at least be closer. If on the top then pulling the branch down would spread open the 1/3 cut.
What do you think? Thanks for your expertise.
Bottom. It is also more rain resistant.
I have two espaliered trees, a Pink Lady and a Fuji. They pretty much fruited from the moment I got them and never stopped. For the most part, I’ve followed the directions of Gary Matsuoka at Laguna Hills Nursery. He has a Youtube channel under “Gary’s Best Gardening.” I made a lot of mistakes with the tree like letting too much growth get on the tree. I think the one piece of advice that seems to help me the most is to prune before Labor Day so that the bud has a chance to form. After my last prune of the season late August / early September, I can see the bud form before my eyes. I’m wondering if you are pruning too late into your season and it never forms before your tree goes to sleep. Like others, I’m also wondering if there is a nutrition issue.
I do notice that the better I follow directions, prune, and keep to 3 leaves, the more those spots develop fruiting spurs. I feel like I get 25% more every year.
Roland, thank you again for your very good instructions. I have non-espalier pruning question(s) if you have the time. I would like to have your recommendations how keep these trees under 4-5 feet. and compact. I call these 3 Dave Wilson stone fruit trees “Frankenstein trees”. They are grafted combos all stone fruit. Each tree has 3-4 grafts. They have been in the ground here one year this month. I found myself pruning them all last summer to keep the new growth under control. Especially the Pluot which is the most vigorous grower. The Peach one is a mystery, I am not sure exactly which grafts I got. All three trees are on dwarf stock and face South West. They are about 2-3 feet from a warm stucco wall. That is the dryer vent you see at the base of the Pluot. Here are the photos. Thank you again for any instructions you can offer. .
I should add that in zone 6a (Marblehead, Ma) we are experiencing 15-20 degrees temps and 60 mph gusts today. I think is is still safe to “Winter Prune”. I have not issue with taking all of these down as long as I do not take off a graft.
If this is the first year in the ground you really should not do anything with the exception of the most vigorous limbs. Your going to want to reduce that so it doesnt over take the tree.
To keep the tree small you best look at @Richard posts for visuals.
Flavor Grenade Pluot - Pictures! - Growing Fruit
Mid Pride Peach - Pictures! - Growing Fruit
Eva’s Pride Peach - Pictures! - Growing Fruit
Roland, I am about to make my cuts on my strong branches of my espalier. Is there a diagram?
The “lengtesnede” cuts were made today. Next up, once leaves come out, I will make the top branches slow down with another cut. I think to the top half.
Can you please show a few close ups of your cuts? thank you.
Well done, the lengtesnede cut will quickly close and this will make the branch thicker and have more vigor.
The cuts under the too thick top branches can be 1/3 deep on the main trunk.
Here a ‘lengtesnede’, made in May last year. You can see that the callus has healed and that the branch has become extra thick. This gives the thicker branch more vigor.
I found this guy on YT this week… he demonstrates how to summer prune apples which encourages them to develop fruit buds.
He recommends doing this late summer after most growth has stopped…
He shows exacrly how to prune, where to prune the latterals… and the results a few weeks later (many developed fruitbuds and flowered in the fall). He pulls those blooms off… and says they will produce fruit the next spring.
He says that summer pruning done right is what produces fruitbuds (earlier on your apple tree than they would normally).
Going to give this a try here. We got almost no rain in july and extreme heat… but now in aug… lots of rain… and my apples are doing a late growth spurt.
If i understood him correcrly i need to wait until this growth spurt slows down to do my summer apple pruning.
It may be late aug… here… this year.
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Whether right or wrong, I am pinching back new growth every couple of days on my espaliers (apple). I think the plants are in desperation mode and sending out lots of shoots. I’ve read that at a certain point they give up and develop fruit buds as a survival mechanism.
I have not summer pruned any of my apples yet… the guy in that vid said you need to wait until new growth slows down…
Think he said that is usually late july early august for him…
But here in TN this year we had a brutally hot and quite dry July… followed so far with cooler and lots of good rain in august. Since we got all this nice rain the past 2-3 weeks all my younger apple trees have 6-8 inches of new (lighter green) growth on.
I am thinking i may need to wait until the current growth spurt calms down before i summer prune.
I have 3 yr old akane and hudson golden gem that have not bloomed yet… i especially would like to force some fruit budding on those.
I agree, my apple espalier has many new leaf clusters and clusters of blossoms. I am removing them.
Your trees could be mine! My trees are very leggy, but I have a couple of tip bearers mixed in. I learned the hard way the last few years that they will not produce fruit if pruned the previous year. What kinds do you have?
I have Monrovia’s apple and a pear. 3 levels all different varieties. I did the summer prune 6/21, then followed Orins video and book and pruned again 8/20. I had new growth on all the lateral ones I pruned in June. I have tried different methods, Anne Ralph’s, Roland’s (on here) and Orin Martins. It is getting frustrating.
I grow a good number of apples as espaliers and was thinking about this thread while pruning this Spring. I find that few varieties are really optimal for a tight espalier pruning. I have a few extreme spur bearers that do great being pruned back to 3 buds. Others stop bearing on old spurs quicker and need a little more wood to develop new spur sites. I have started to adapt pruning of each variety depending on how I see the buds developing. I don’t do any summer pruning which might help with spur production. Here is a Bramley which is very productive as a espalier.
