Feeling totally lost in my espalier trellis building project

[Audi_o_phile]

@stormrunner89

I’m trellising apples. A variety (I hope) on Bud-9 rootstocks.

You might want to consider another option, that of staking your apple trees instead.

@smatthew

A trellis would be great if you had hundreds of apple trees. Commercial growers use trellising instead of stakes because of the cost savings. On the small scale, a properly built trellis would be much much more expensive than stakes.

If a trellis fails, every tree gets destroyed. If a stake fails, only one tree gets destroyed.

You can also build a hybrid model where the trellis only has one wire - at the top of the stakes. Stakes & Trellising is the best if you’ve got the time and money.

In summary, stakes are cheaper and easier on the small scale.