TOM my pruning method was to prune all vertical growth coming off the arms down to a two inch stub containing the first cluster of leaves.
Did this anytime from mid June to mid-July.There will be new growth off the stub and that was pruned once the terminal bud was set for the season. Once the terminal bud set I pruned all the new growth down to the first 3 leaf cluster above the original prune.
This has the effect of converting the vegetative growth on the stub to fruiting wood.
That probably is my mistake. I let them grew out like 2, 3 feet then pruned once or twice in summer. Then I pruned again in early spring. I probably clipped off all my fruit buds.
Now that I have lots of stub about 7, 8 inches from the main arms. Should I cut all stubs of past years and this year new growth down to 2 inches (from arms) at this point to regrow the arms structure?
There are some guys here who are much more experienced on a treeās reaction to pruning, especially for the type you are contemplating. Letās wait a little and I am sure they will chime in.
I just donāt want to tell you something that may delay fruiting un-necessarily.
While waiting for expertsā advices further, can I ask you another question?
You said āto prune all vertical growth coming off the arms down to a two inch stub containing the first cluster of leavesā. Should I do that after a certain length of growth?
Iām definitely feeling itchy to correct my mistake while the season is still early for substantial growth. Waiting the past 4 years with no show of fruits is getting to me, considering the caliber of the main trunk is already of good bearing size, IMO.
Donāt rushā¦ espaliers can and are pruned several times a year.
You wonāt be speeding anything up by doing now as opposed to June-July. What you could do to alleviate the itch is to prune off (at the base/collar) anything that is grow in in towards the fence.
Also, on the tree on the right, I would loosen that tie on the right uppermost scaffold (branch) looks too and constricting. (Canāt see how tight they are on the left tree).
Iāve watched these 3 videos couple of years ago but somehow it never registered in my mind. Thank you for bringing that up. Iāve just watched them again and it seemed to make sense now!
Old age is creeping in! Thanks again, Mike.
I still am wondering if I should re-prune for newer growth now or wait 'til Jun/July. By then, the sun is hot and chance of getting sunburn is much more since not much foliage for covering the trunk/arms. Wouldnāt that be another issue to worry about?
It is a little difficult because you have so many different variations of growth and thicknessā¦ so here goesā¦
Prune those really thick uprights, especially those at the top centers of both trees that look like crowns, down to the 1-f2 inch stubs. New growth will emerge and you will have to keep that in check because the tree wants to be a tree and to reach for the sky.
Same for the really thick uprights throughout.
Head all those really skinny shoots to 2 inch stubs.
You seem ti have some growth right on the scaffolds. Leave this be for now. If the shoot up, later in the year you can stub them.
Then as to those skinny shoots I would head them to the lowest 2 buds or leaf clusters
I would not worry about the sun. Youād be surprised how much grown you will get as the tree ramps up and as in the videos the trunk is exposed with no harm.
LASTLYā¦ wait a few days to see if anyone else chimes in. Alan H ā¦ where are you?
Mike, you probably have about as much experience with espaliers as I do at this point- you seem to have mastered the essential details that Iām aware of. One difference is I tend to remove excessively thick wood right to the trunk if I have something thinner to work with and rotate my fruiting spurs in this manner. They will get thicker every year and eventually harder to keep fruitful, I think.
Like you, I prune several (probably 3) times during the growing season and by the time terminal buds are set in mid-summer very little dormant pruning should be needed.
You didnāt mention that when establishing the espalier you need to let a shoot at the end of the arms grow straight up during the growing season and then tied down before spring. This is how you develop the length of the arms.
Your orchard looks great but completely different from my approach. My orchard is open to deer and spread all over my 3 rocky and very sloping acres. My orchard trees tend to be in the rockiest places and my easier to manage areas are nursery. Most of my 3 acres is devoted to my fenced vegetable garden and nursery (where I plant my whips for a couple of years), orchard and larger tree nursery that has no deer protection beyond repellents. My trees are deliberately trained above the browse line.
I have a kind of pear fence on the western side of the fenced area whose management follows most of the principles of an espalier. I only manage a dozen other espalier trees in all the sites I tend to.
Soper, super, super nice Mike. I really like the idea of espalier. It appeals to my desire to see things neat and tidy and I can just imagine all the benefits from fungal and insect issues to sunlight and airflow and a lot more.
Good work for sure. Mulch, fencing, sturdy supports and wires, irrigation, you really have everything covered. What is the pipe and fencing in the photo for?
My run is 100 feet long and I am in a very windy area and when the trees are fully leafed out they would act as a sail so I so I built to compensate and not being an engineer, I overbuilt.
I am attaching a basic drawing which I hope helps. BTW I strongly recommend that you go check out KENCOVE.com. And they have a great interactive copy of they catalog which has all the fittings and even diagrams of installations.
Each 100 foot row has 2 end posts and two inside posts. The end posts are 3 inch galvanized steel fence poles. The inside posts are 1 1/2 inch. The posts are 9 foot posts sunk 2 feet into the ground. the wire I used was 12.5 gauge galvanized high tensile fence wire. If I did it today I would use 12.5 gauge monofilament wire which is much lighter and easier to work with.
The first wire is 20" off the ground and then 18" between each subsequent wire.
Originally, I braced the end posts with wire as in the first drawing. But I found that that used u too much valuable space and interfered with getting around inside the enclosure so I am switching to an inside bracing method as in the second drawing.
All of the connectors, tighteners etc. I got from KENCOVE. Look up or Google āGRIPPLEā ( http://www.gripple.com/us/ ) and you will see alot of the different ones available. @Appleseed70, that is what the pipes on the ground are for.
The tees you see at the top are just PVC that I fashioned to hold up the bird nets that I will be deploying.
Just to say it againā¦ My trellis is very OVERBUILT. I donāt want anyone to be discouraged by what i did. Also the designs you see in the KENCOVE catalog is for 400-500 foot runs. We DO NOT have to do anything close to that. But, we can use the concepts and apply them to our needs. DRAWING.pdf (143.9 KB)
I like your place too. Good to see fruit isnāt it. Thatās a nice pond. Do you stock it with fish? Townships near me give a brake on taxes if you have a pond the fire trucks can suck water from. I think they need to be in the front yard though, but not sure. It seems like everyone is putting them in the front.
The pond is stocked with trout (rainbow, brown, brook & golden rainbow), and Golden Orfe and Sunfish(Bluegills). Some large mouth bass were brought in by birds, I think, and I am trying to keep their population in check.
