The great multigraft espallier experiment on long island

General Fruit Growing
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Hi all, anyone growing a multigraft espallier? I have a few ways i could go about it and im wondering which is the best idea. Made this its own thread on suggestion

Climate: long island ny. Wet mild spring, into heat in the summer with more humidity but still been having drought lately, mild damp fall. First frost is mid-late novemeber, last frost is early april. Immense CAR pressure. Not sure on others…

The rootstock is a m106 which comes with lucy glo grafted onto it

Part 1: the graft timing/strategy.

From there we have a few options

Option 1: snip at 25ish inch above the ground, graft each side branch with a variety, let the lucy glo continue to grow up and snip it a larer season about 16 inches above that repeat.
Option 1a: same thing but let side shoots grow a season before grafting

Option 2: snip 25 ish inches above ground, train the side shoots as lucy glo branches. Graft the new top as a new variety the following season. Once that gets tall enough snip again and repeat.

Option 3: bud graft about 25 inches up the 2 varieties new varieties. Snip above it and notch the ones you want to grow and hopefully each arm is its own variety and the lucy glo continues up as a leader

Which do you guys think makes the most sense? Have any of you tried this?

Part 2: the varieties.

Help me pick what varieties to grow in this experiment and whats better on different trees

To be a good espallier tree it needs to be strongly spur bearing and ideally we want the most vigorous in the bottom.

These are the current apples i am interested in,

Lucy Glo-confirmed
Sweet Sixteen
Hudson’s Golden Gem
Mother
Winesap
Orléans Reinette
Lucy Gem- confirmed
GoldRush
Ananas Reinette
Ergemont Russet
Cherry Cox
Winekist- confirmed
Ashmead’s Kernel
Kidd’s Orange Red
Cinnamon Spice
Esop spitz

The confirmed ones are already bought so whats done is done there. Winekist is specifically for some cider making with a friend so should be fun. Mostly looking for fresh eating apples but sauce making will happen too.

Of that list the strongly spur bearing from my research is ashmeads, goldrush, winesap, hudson golden gem, ergamot russet, and mother. Let me know if any others.

Im considering trading out the russet for another like Roxbury or golden and dropping mother for somrthing like priscilla since i think already have some similar flavors and idk if i want a mush fest. Or maybe caville blanc d’hiver

3 Likes
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My new list, after refining it a bit and doing a lot of research on vigor. I’m still a bit mixed on the best way to do the espallier but hey, eventually you gotta just decide.

Edited with below info!!

Backyard — Espalier (South-Facing Fence)
Rootstock: M106
Final Height: ~7–8 ft (4 tiers)

Top Tier

  • Roxburry Russet
  • Lucy glo

Third Tier

  • Orlean’s Reinette
  • Ananas Reinette

Second Tier

  • Ashmead’s kernel
  • Winesap

Bottom Tier

  • GoldRush
  • Grey Pearmain

Front Yard — Open Tree 1
Rootstock: M111
Final Height: ~10–12 ft (open vase)

Sun-Side Priority (weak → strong)

  • Cherry Cox
  • st Edmunds Russet
  • Hudsons golden gem
  • Pitmason Pineapple
  • Lucy Gem

Front Yard — Open Tree 2
Rootstock: Bud 118
Final Height: ~11–13 ft (open vase)

Sun-Side Priority (weak → strong)

  • Cinnamon Spice
  • Kidd’s Orange Red
  • Norfolk Royal Russet
  • Esopus Spitzenburg
  • Winekist
  • Sweet Sixteen
1 Like
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I count 4 tiers :cowboy_hat_face:

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it keeps growing LOL

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I have a pear tree like that. Weird, eh?

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When doing a multi-variety, multi-tiered espalier you will need to be careful selecting the cultivar of the appropriate vigor for each of your tiers. Upper tiers naturally grow better/faster so these should be the weakest growing cultivars. The bottom tiers are much slower growing so these should be composed of the most vigorous cultivars.

Since you are on Long Island, you may want to see if you can arrange a visit to Leuthardt Nurseries. They have long specialized in espaliers. https://www.henryleuthardtnurseries.com/

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yes, I attempted to doso, do you see any errors?

Good call on the orchard, I havent seen them before, I’ll go and see.

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In my experience, Gold Rush is not nearly as vigorous as Ashmead’s or even St. Edmunds. I don’t have any experience with Lucy Glo, Orlean’s or Grey Pearmain.

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Interesting. When i was looking most rate it moderate to very vigorous.

Does anyone have experience with how much of a tip bearer ashmeads is? I found a few saying its more of a tip bearer than a spur.

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Here’s a helpful link for vigor

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helpful!

All my varieties for the espallier ar elisted as t2 with the exception of HGG and St edmunds which is t3. Grey pearmain is unlisted. ok so it sounds like its best to swap those out with something else for this. Grey pearmain is still suppsoed to be quite vigorous so i think its fine at the bottom.

I’m going to swap st edmunds with roxburry russet which is t2 (and i think is supposed to be fine for espallier) and then hudson golden gem with ananas reinette.

Thoughts?

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I knew it was somewhere on this site. To answer the question on tip bearing. Spur bearing are first on list; tip bearing at end (p 28). With some suggestions for pruning.

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interesting. Gray pearmain appears on like 0 lists. otherwise Roxburry Russet and Ananas reinette are listed as “partial spur” but the rest are spur. Do you think that will be an issue? if so i guess i make another swap

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Gray Pearmain is a John Bunker/Fedco apple. Here is the description from his website:
https://www.outonalimbapples.com/varieties/gray-pearmain
You might contact them and see what else you can find about this apple’s habits. John would know best.
I grafted it onto one of my trees this past season, so no real experience yet.

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I emailed him. Ill let you know.

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well havent heard back about grey pearmain, but my tree came in today

image
image1920×2560 847 KB

the side branches look pretty decent height, and even the ones up top look solid for next year. do we think if i graft those side branches over they’ll take? or do i need to also top the tree?

By the way, really happy with this tree for the price, its a lot bigger than I thought itd be. Id buy from burnt ridge again. 27 dollars for this

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