Just got an apple tree, Grade 1, from Cummins that is about 5 ft tall and has a number of branches already on it. How do I prune it to make it into an espalier?
I’d say you have several options. One would be to cut the entire thing back to slightly below the height where you want the first tier of your espalier to form. (Say 2’.) Buds near the top of what’s left should sprout and give you branches that you can train to form the first tier of your espalier. Once you’ve got that going, you can let/encourage a vertical to form, let the vertical grow to the height where you want to have the next tier, and so on.
Another option would be to keep more of the existing trunk and use notching above buds to encourage branches to form where you want the tiers. The drawback to this approach is that apical dominance may hinder the growth of the branches that you’re using to form the lower tiers.
Hope this is helpful!
1 Like
JinMa has pretty good advice. In theory (not good theory) those branched trees look like a fast way to geet your espalier. Two problems: Branch spacing probably isn’t where you want it. The second being that te first tier must be fully develloped before moving up. So you have to cut it below the wire and take your time.
1 Like
What variety is it (just curious).
Are you planning any grafts? If so, you’ll have to take that into account too as you plan this out.
There was a recent post about an innovative (to me) grafting technique to graft a scion laterally to get a branch where you don’t have one right now.
On your second point that the first tier must be fully developed before moving up, (I’m sure that also works) but I’ve personally never had a problem with keeping the first tiers growing after I’ve continued up to tier two or three. This method is given in my RHS Pruning & Training book.
1 Like
Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. I will cut just below the lowest wire.