So I am not one for making things easy for myself…
I bought my first fruit trees ever this season and they’re bare root (fuji apple, flavor king pluot, and santa rosa plum).
I am planning to espalier the apple tree into at least 4 tiers, maybe 5, spaced ~18" apart. I have just planted it and need to get the structure set up but am wondering the best pruning method for this.
I have read the section on apple espalier in American Horticultural Society’s Pruning & Training book, where the assumption is the first year winter the cut would be above the first bud right above your first tier wire (~18" from ground) which would grow to be the new vertical leader, with two nice lateral buds below the wire that would develop to make the first tier.
But… I got something which looks to have a lot more growth on it than expected, with main stem nearly an inch in diameter. I am wondering I can save time by pruning less aggressively and using some of the existing laterals. If you can see the picture, the pink tag is about 18" off the ground, where I’d want the first wire to be. There are two laterals just beneath that are at the right angles to form that tier, and I have at least another 18" above that on the leader.
If it will still work, common sense (though certainly can be wrong!!) would say I could just make the cut at the bud above the 2nd tier wire (around 36" above ground where I have 3 nice buds (again with the top one forming the new leader, and two on either side to train to the next tier).
Will this work? Or should I hold my breath and cut it 20"+ back as would be suggested if I took the AHS advice at face value?
That will work. I received my tree with two layers of branches, they where not pruned branches like yours, but I was able to get to layers right in first year, You can do what do it too it the way you describe.
I have that book also I do not think it applies to a tree that size. From the looks of things you have great scaffolds already. why dont you just graft on them?
So… Based on that what I have read here, I’ve now done thinning cuts to all but the bottom two laterals which will become the first tier.
And somewhat perfectly the nursery’s pruning cut was at just above 36" with the bottom two of the top 3 buds being nicely positioned parallel to the wall on each side. I hope and expect that those will become the next tier laterals while the topmost bud will become the new leader.
I guess the biggest risk is whether it will supply enough energy to the 2 existing laterals and the two buds that I hope will form new laterals. Should be fun to wait and see
The last thing I wonder is whether I can get the first tier lateral on the right in the picture to grow more vigorously than left temporarily as growth is a bit lopsided for now. I have heard of two strategies for this:
let the weaker side grow more vertically before tying horizontally, but tie stronger side horizontal immediately (vertical shoots grow faster apparently)
nick above the weaker bud (normally to induce bud break, but I assume works also to suppress auxin flow that impedes growth to that limb)
On my espaliers I feel like the nicking thing helped with boosting growth in a runty limb. But it’s hard to know what would have happened if I had not put in the nick. I’ve done it a number of times now and feel that it is helpful.
What exactly does this nick look like in practice. my first tear is runted out. And I have a cherry graft with exactly one flower bud I want to force into vegetative growth.
Actually that’s good to know, the things I’ve seen have talked about taking bark off with two cuts: a horizontal and a crescent shaped cut. I’ll have to first try this as it seems like less energy would need to be spent on healing.
No need to take bark off, no need to remove anything., just a cut.
This disrupts the flow of auxin ( a plant hormone )
Can be used to force a bud , or a larger branch.
I often do this while pruning ,to balance the growth of scaffold branches.
Wonder how I missed this! I am not sure I have a good photo from that timeframe but here it was a couple weeks ago. A couple tiers/limbs that were a bit weaker in growth I cut back pretty hard in dormancy this past winter, but then had the idea to whip & tongue graft onto those same limbs 4 other varieties, so it’s looking a little odd (Aluminum foil would call your attention to those), but thankfully they all took and will be training them as they get a bit stronger.
