FIRST NICE DAY OF THE YEAR.
STONE FRUIT MOSTLY BLITZED BUT APPLES & PEARS WILL MAKE LIFE BEARABLE IN THE ORCHARD 
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Holy smokes! Sweet espaliers! Looking good
My apples and pears are espaliered.
The stone fruit keep beating me at it.
Pears are easy
Mike
4 Likes
Mike,
What are the orange ribbons in the 2nd pc for?
Your Odysso flower already. I thought you just planted it. What rootstocks are your apples and pears on?
Beautiful orchard and pics.
THE ORANGE TAPE: Sorry… no MAGIC ORANGE BULLET here. I had a couple of 500 foot rolls of “caution tape” lying around and late last fall I needed to tie some branches down to other branches or to trellis wires to shape them.
I used the orange tape for two reasons:
- It was pretty cold out and my hands were too cold to deal with the finer tie down cords that I had and the wide orange tape was easier to work with, although I did have to loop it a few times to get the strength needed ( and I had 1000+ feet of the stuff
) - It gets pretty windy here in the fall and winter and I wanted to use a material that would not chafe and abrade the bark on the branches that were being manhandled. With its wide footprint and stretchiness served that purpose (…and I had 1000 + feet of the stuff )
ROOTSTOCK: Most of my apples are on M111, The Pears are on OHx87 - 97.
REDLOVE APPLES. Last year I got REDLOVE ERA, CALYPSO, ODYSSO from One Green World. I planted them last summer. They are still verry skinny and I am just shaping them. I will let no more than 2 apples mature on any tree.
Once I see which trees are producing viable fruit I will pick an assortment of apple, pear, plum, peach, nect,& hybrid and will start a “time lapse” for each through harvest. I have photos going back to March-April
In the meantime… see below
Mike
5 Likes
I am impressed that your trees on M111 fruit quite early. The branch bending by espalier system may be helpful, too.
When I see how productive your espalier system works, I can’t help wonder what is going with @tomIL’s espalier apple trees. His espalier apples are older than yours but have not calm down and set fruit yet.