I have never seen this in the United States, but I am sure it is done somewhere! The French, rather than waste time waiting five years or so for trees to fruit (quicker in zone 9 a-b), they graft the entire top of a 3-4 year old tree to a 3-4 year old rootstock. Your tree arrives as a tree, not just a simple graft, ie. maiden or more. They are amazing. I have two of them. They come with a large bamboo pole tied to the trunk, as the winds here are ferocious. So far so good. My are blossoming and fruiting in their second year on my terrace. The espaliers arrive the same way. They are 3-4 feet tall and ready to pot. The following year you will have flowers and fruit.
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What type of graft do they use?
The graft is simply on the bias. Not interlocking. Taped and glued.
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i know it can be done, but it seems quite inefficient to me.
To do that you have to
1: grow the rootstock for 4 years
2: grow the variety (grafted? on what?) for 4 years.
And than merge them into 1 tree.
Basicly you grow 2 tree’s for 4 years to get 1.
Why not just graft year 1, and instead of selling after 1-2 years. Wait another 2. you than also have a fruiting 4 year old tree. But you only needed space/care for 1 instead of 2 tree’s?
Or am i missing some obvious advantage to the “French method”?
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I don’t think you are missing anything.
The way I see it, the advantage is for the buyers/consumers. They do not need to wait 4-5 years after purchases to get fruit production.
Nothing wrong with that.
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Ha! When you are in your 70’s waiting becomes an issue!
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There is no right or wrong. If the cost is not a consideration, but the time is a priority than this seem a doable approach.
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You are not doing this yourself, you are buying them grafted and ready to fruit.
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Ison’s is selling it as Instant Orchard
But you would still need to wait the same time since the rootstock is planted at the same time. The only advantage I can think of would be being able to fill custom orders quicker.
Most commercial growers want a crop a year after planting. There are ways to coax most temperate tree fruit into fruiting after a year. Usually a combination of dwarfing stock with a trellis to support the extra weight on the limbs. You can fruit peaches pretty heavily after one year through different training methods as well.
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I do imagine the cost stops some from going that route though.
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I am not sure what you meant.
I am talking about buyers of these trees as they save time, but probably not money.
I got ya, I just meant that the tree is grown at the nursery for the same amount of time regardless of when it grafted.
4 years is 4 years, no matter how you graft it. I’d think that interlocked somehow would still be advantageous, even with a proper glue job.
They are expensive trees.
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I have seen these trees for sale in France. They are available in all sorts of espalier shapes or as a standard and they are ready to fruit. They are great if you don’t want to buy a whip yourself and spend the next three years shaping and pruning the trees.
However, I think there may be a little confusion in the original post about the way these trees are shaped. I have never heard of the practice of grafting the top of a completely shaped tree to another rootstock and I can also not really t ik of why anyone would want to do that.
But I do know many nurseries who graft trees like everyone else - as one year whips, but then keep the trees for four more years to pre-shape them.
Is it possible that that is something different than what is mostly available in the states?
Here is one example where you can see how they raise and prune these espalier trees:
As you say, they are not cheap, but they are fully shaped and ready to fruit when you buy them.
(To keep them like that it is wise to study the way these are maintained and to know how and when to prune them - if you know that, they can remain fruitful for over 40 years in the same shape)
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You are correct. I have four of these trees. One not yet planted, the other three have been in pots for 3 years. There is no questions these trees were grafted years ago. When they arrive the trunks are two to three inches wide. Two are apple espaliers. Double U form. They arrive bare-root and beautifully packed. Also there is no confusion. The vase shaped trees (the tops are grafted right to the three foot tall rootstock. I have a Montmorency cherry and a Reine des Reinettes pomme with that type of graft.
As you know, the nurseries in France carrying specialty espaliers are many and their trees are spectacular.
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i agree, i think it’s most efficient to just graft as normal. And instead of selling as a whip after 1 year or knip-boom after 2 years. They keep growing/shaping for 3-5 years total.
There is an excellent book on this. Unfortunately only available in Dutch as far as I’m aware.
it is my goal to one day make a tree in the exact candelabra style as on the front of the book. (candelabra with 5 times a U shape thus 10 verticals in total)
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