Parisian goblet espalier

General Fruit Growing
1

I’m planning on making something of a Parisian goblet/fan-like shape with an Olympic Asian pear I am getting and planting against a fence in March. The verticals will fan out a bit and not go straight vertical like the goblet. My goal with the shape is to have the lowest level move vertical quickly, so everything is on the same height level growing together and less likely to have branches that are lagging and weak. (Plus, I think it’s pretty.) Is that thinking correct or flawed?

My main question- if I am going for a shape with very little time spent horizontal, can I risk making the first two level simultaneously? I can’t find much about how to grow this shape, but did find some diagram that showed keeping 16” between the branches/scaffolds/not sure what to call them. Is that enough space? I only have 5.5’ of width against the fence, so I’m planning two levels and a center. Similar to this picture I found. The center I will graft last to be dripping honey, since I need a pollenizer.

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My 3 different ideas to approach this:

  1. Plant and head the tree at 32-34”. Notch buds I want to grow. Get the two levels around 16” and 32.” Let them grow and build those levels angling more vertical after maybe 1’ horizontal for the bottom layer and 6” horizontal for the top layer. Continue to pinch back any center growth. Keep doing that for year two Or start letting the center grow. Year 3, graft pollenizer to the center.
    OR
  2. Plant and head tree around 18”. Build the first level. Once it starts getting pinned up vertical, let center grow for second layer. pinching it back at the level I will let the second level start (32”?). Year 2 do the second and then let the center grow. Or pinch back center and let it grow year 3 and graft it.
    OR
  3. Plant and head at 18”. Build first layer. Keep pinching center growth. Year two, let the center grow and make the second level. Year 3 let the center grow and graft it.

Also, I’m wondering what people who espalier think about just putting long eye screws into my fence where I need to tether the levels. This would be instead of having wires running horizontal that, given the shape, I am largely not using past the first 6-12” off the trunk. The goal is loose, curved, no hard lines. I would use temporary bamboo vertical and horizontals for staking and the start of the first two levels.

Would love any and all opinions.

2

That is a pretty shape!

If it doesn’t have buds you could add some like the thread below. It’s not exactly the same shape, but I just happened to see this thread yesterday: Double U Espalier

And I think you want to establish the lowest tier first and don’t start the second until the bottom tier is as high as the second will start - not from experience but by reading posts by @Roland whose info I found super helpful.

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Thank you. Roland’s posts have been so helpful. I know it is repeated not to start second until the second or 3rd year, I just thought since I’m barely going horizontal that maybe I could cheat. That’s a good point about waiting until bottom is at the height of the next.

4

Does anyone have an opinion as to whether OHxF87 is noticeably better for espalier than OHxF97? The size difference does not seem that major. I don’t care too much about the precocity issue. Planted in a cleared out and filled 3x3 hole with a with mix of dirt and gravel (ancient driveway) on 3 sides and clay on the 4th. Due to a mistake, I have an Olympic on each rootstock in 2 different orders and need to figure out which to cancel.

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I’ve been told that OHxF87 is actually quite a bit smaller than OHxF97 for Asian pear. Since you probably don’t want it to run away and grow straight up - I’d actually go for the OHxF87

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So, I decided on OHxF97 for better rooting in what is predominately crap soil/rocks. I have standard rootstocks all over that I’m pruning to keep small, so this didn’t seem like a big difference.

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