Growing fruit trees along a fence

General Fruit Growing
#1

Hey all,
I’ve run out of room in my small garden, and I’m now considering growing a couple of espaliers along my fence. I have two questions:

  1. The fence is westward facing, and is partially shaded throughout the afternoon when it gets sun. Is there enough sunlight to grow properly?
  2. I’m worried about the fence post foundation, will it ruin it (I assume growing the tree next to the pressure-treated posts)?

Any help appreciated.

#2

Apples may not be as sweet or colorful in mostly shade, but that shouldn’t stop you.
I certainly would go for it (if I had no other good spots).
Besides espalier…could try spindle on dwarf rootstocks, planted 3 to 5 feet apart…and tied to the fence for support in some manner.

#3

If you have to plant in partial sun locations…

I think that Western (hot evening sun only)… is the least ideal of the options…

If your fence is tall and will block all morning sun from the trees… that is not ideal.

Morning sun is good… cooler… gets the over night dew dried up quickly…

At our local walmart there is a wild american persimmon growing in a location that gets evening sun only… i just noticed it last fall and it was loaded with fruit… and again this year is fruiting well.

I have a WAP on my county road that gets 3 or 4 hours of mid day sun only and it fruits well.

Persimmmons that get less sun seem to ripen the fruit much later than the ones in full sun.
The one at our walmart had ripe fruit on it first week of Dec last year.

Hope apples work for you but if not you might try persimmons.

Good luck.

#4

shade effect on apples has been studied, for example:

the usual result is that you’ll get fruit in proportion to the sun. it’s fairly linear (half sun-> half fruit). the fruit you do get can still be high quality (see the charts on page 4)

I have a lot of fence line plantings and the ones that are going north-south (against an “east-facing” or “west-facing” fence) that get half sun, I train in an espalier style. then the tree still gets excellent light for the few branches it does have

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