Steven,
My orchard is about a 130-40 mile drive for me. In season, ( late March to Thanksgiving) I try to leave my office on Thursdays after 7:30 p.m. (rush hour) and then it takes me about 2 hours and 15 minutes because the trip includes 120 miles on the NYS Thruway and at that hour traffic usually mooooves!!!.
I then stay until Sunday p.m. On a Friday or during rush hour it could take 4+ hours.
This year I am thinking of planting some table grapes between the trees and using the trees themselves and the wires as supports.
No human predation. Although my orchard does have a lock on the chain link fence and it is on a dead end road so it does not have too much incidental passerby’s .
Thanks for all the good info. Too bad the bird netting experiment failed. I used bird netting for the first time this year and while it served its purpose well, it is such a pain to deal with. Gets caught on everything, including itself.
Spacing of the trees is 9 feet apart. I know that this is close but below is my calculus and factors that I considered in the design of the orchard. Keep in mind that I can only get to the Orchard from Friday p.m. to Sunday p.m. so maintenance time is at a premium
With four arms to the espalier I have a potential of 72 feet ( 9 feet x 4 scaffolds x 2 sides =72) of branches growing horizontally, fully open to the sun for maximum light utilization
With the growing branches being completely exposed to the wind, the tree dries out more quickly after a rain with potential decrease in fungal & bacterial issues. Easier to spot problems earlier too.
I can let scaffolds of adjoining trees overlap so the same 9 foot spread is supporting two different varieties in the same space.
There is an added benefit in regards thinning so as not to allow a tree to overbear. We try to thin, apples for example, to no less than 8 inches apart. Well sometimes the spacing of the clusters don’t co-operate. With the overlap, I can thin each variety to 8 inches but still have fruit every 4-5 inches. So the same 9 foot area is being used to support more individual fruits. Just adds a little flexibility as it does not always work out so neatly
If one variety is too fruitful or is too aggressively ( I know, we love to complain about everything) impacting its neighbor, I can prune it back.
With the open espalier we have to be more mindful of sun scalding. The overlap adds more of a leaf canopy to help a little. Also keeping the top scaffold bushier with leaves works to offer more protection from the hottest mid-day sun directly overhead. The morning and later afternoon sun are not as much of a scalding issue.
I am 5’11" so I can add a 5th scaffold which would top off at 84 inches and still be within hand reach for me or easily for others with a 3 foot step-ladder
With the espalier it makes a quick job of any needed spraying. I am linking to a You tube video where I show my home made sprayer using a power washer
I am also attaching a diagram that might make what I just said make more sense
Just my 2 cents
I love your reasoning for the 9’ spacing, mine are on b9 and at 3’ spacing trained tall spindle and i second your reasoning why you like them close. Also like how many varieties im able to obtain in such a small area.
I tried to stagger the ripening times so there is no huge crush but in addition, every year there is something that keeps me in the real world.
I am in Zone 5b in Upstate NY… As an example, in 2019 we had a very coldish & wet spring. The polinators just did not come out in Sync with many of the blooms. The flowers opened and the rains came for days. 70% of my apples had zero fruit. Peaches and nects were good, but plums 40%.
Now, I still have lots of fruit which I give away to neighbors up at the orchard, I distribute to family and I also preserve some and make a huge amount of apple chips in my excelsior dehydrator. Those are a huge hit.
I am still eating 2-3 Yellow Newton Pippins a day which I kept in storage since October-November.
With 80-90 trees and 140+ varieties there is always something so that keeps the pain at bay. Never know what the menu will have.
Thanks for the detailed info. My growing space is 100 x 200 ft. My rows are currently 20 feet apart and trees are spaced 15 feet within rows. Your orchard is definitely giving me the inspiration to dramatically increase my density. There’s still so many more varieties I would like to grow and I am already at capacity with my current spacing arrangement so I’ve been thinking about adding new rows at the middle of the existing aisles. I’ve also been thinking about additional plantings between existing trees in a row. This would result in rows 10 ft apart with trees 7.5 feet apart within each row which would closely match your spacing arrangement.