Whew, the title of this post alone is enough to make you weary! However, my foray into espaliered fruit trees has taught me that there is not a lot of succinct, yet complete, practical information out there on growing espaliered fruit.

Espalier, as defined by Wikipedia, is “the horticultural technique of training trees through pruning and grafting in order to create formal “two-dimensional” or single plane patterns by the branches of the tree. The technique was popular in the Middle Ages in Europe to produce fruit inside the walls of a typical castle courtyard without interfering with the open space, and to decorate solid walls by such trees planted near them. Evidence exists suggesting that the technique dates back much further, perhaps even to ancient Egypt. The word espalier initially referred to the actual trellis on which the plant was trained to grow, but over time has come to be used to describe the technique.”

This technique both creates a way to produce more fruit in less space and gives the gardener a highly-decorative, but still food-producing, way to use some hard-to use spaces like, in our case, a small spot on the fence between our vegetable garden and compost bins, or a bare patch of wall next to our dog run.

So how to get started? The fruit trees typically used for espalier grow on super-dwarf rootstock. We ordered two super-dwarf apple trees when we placed our fruit tree order from Raintree Nursery this winter: a Liberty and a Striped Gravenstein.

There is quite a detailed discussion of espalier on Mother Earth News, but it’s quite long and I’m going for succinct, so I kept looking. P. Allen Smith has the most succinct step-by-step instructions for espalier. Here are some other tips for growing espaliered fruit trees:

1. Look for young (1-2 year old) stock. A whip (one single branch, i.e. a stick!) or something with very few side-branches is best.
2. Plant the whip or young tree at least 6-8 (but I’d say no more than 12) inches from the wall or structure you’re planning to use to support the tree. You need airflow and room for the trunk to widen as the tree ages, but you also don’t want to have the trunk sticking out and all the branches moving away from it in a big V…you’re going for a 2-dimensional tree here.
3. The most simple form of espalier is typically three horizontal rows of branches, each 18 inches apart with the first row starting 2-3′ off of the ground. There is a great drawing of this in the P. Allen Smith article referenced above, or photos of this simple espalier, as well as the more complex diamond-lattice pattern on SouthernAccents. You can also create a fan shape by training the branches at 45-degree angles instead of horizontal. I found a great diagram of some different espalier designs in a rather unlikely location. I’ve seen quite a range of wire gauges recommended (from 10-15) so I’ll probably shoot for something in the middle to train the branches on.
4. Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening has a long-winded very descriptive explanation of how and when to prune branches that I think will come in handy next year, but for this (first) year with our espaliers, I’m basically planning to choose a strong shoot on either side of the trees to train as the bottom tier of the espalier. It also goes in to what to do if you have one very strong vigorous branch and one weaker one, because of the importance of keeping the espalier balanced in order to get the full effect of the pattern. I have no idea yet to what extent this will be an issue for us, but I’ll keep you posted!
5. Don’t let it fruit the first (or second!) year. I have yet to test my ability to remove fruit from young trees. But since I’ve already been dreaming about the handful of cherries I’m going to get off of my tiny baby cherry tree this year, I’m guessing this may be the hardest part of espalier, at least for someone who is both impatient and in to food production! However, I know that the reason for pruning the fruit is sound–that tree needs to put all its energy into root and branch production, not fruiting! So we’ll see if I can do it.

I don’t want to suggest that espalier fruit trees are easy or low-maintenance, but I do want to suggest that it is possible to do without a degree in horticulture (it better be, because I don’t have one!) and without spending $200 a pop for pre-trained fruit trees. My trees just look like little sticks now, but I will snap some photos as they develop into what I hope will be beautiful and productive fruit trees.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Growing Fruit, The Growing Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.