One of the various apple varieties I’m growing is ‘Vanderpool Red’. I don’t yet know a whole lot about this clone, but so far one thing is apparent. It has WIDE branch angles. I have multiple trees of this grafted and although many others have good wide branch angles, ‘Vanderpool Red’ takes it to the extreme with almost all branches protruding from the trunks at about a 90° angle.
This growth habit makes me think it could be an easy tree to keep pruned as an espalier or just as low wide trees.
Who else here grows this variety? What observations do you have (relating to branch angles, fruit quality or anything else about it)?
I have an additional observation to add. The branches (even older) are highly flexible. Feeling branches on various other varieties in my collection, nothing else compares to the flexibility of ‘Vanderpool Red’. I had been growing my mother tree in a large pot, but today decided to go ahead and just plant it against a wire fence to begin espalliering. The wide branch angles and incredible branch flexibility just make it too easy to create a flat tree.
Not bad considering the ‘Vanderpool Red’ pictured here had zero espalier training prior to me planting it against this fence a few days ago (I did clip off a few extra branches at the time of planting).
