New Zealand Garden Swap Newsletter
Garden Swap Website - Newsletter Cover - Page 7 - Page 9STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL ESPALIER
Apples are among the most popular of fruits. Because of their branching traits and pruning requirements, they're well-adapted to espalier training. An apple is a good choice to start with, especially if you only want one espalier in your garden.Semidwarf or dwarf apple trees are good choices because they stay small and are bred for growing in small spaces. Start with a whip, or unbranched sapling. That way, there's no existing branch structure to eliminate or retrain.
Step 1: Lay out your pattern.
An espalier is a long-term project, so take some time to study the design. I found colored masking tape in the paint department of a home-improvement store.This pattern has wires at 24, 44 and 60 in. above the ground, for a total height of 5 ft. You can use the tape as a guide to set up the wires and then remove it.
Step 2: Set up support wires.
Here, I used colored wire so you can see it. Galvanized, 16-gauge wire works fine. Next, drill holes and screw in heavy-duty, 8-in. eyebolts to hold the wire 4 to 6 in. away from the wall. Make sure you're drilling into structural supports like posts or wall studs so the eyebolts won't pull out. Plan for these supports to be no more than 8 ft. apart.Loop and wrap the wire as shown in the inset. Then pull it tight and wrap it the same way at the other end.
Step 3: Position, plant and prune the tree.
Dig a hole deep and wide enough to accommodate the roots. For a grafted apple whip, the bud union — a knobby bump where the tree was grafted to the rootstock — should be about 2 in. above the soil's surface. The trunk, like the support wire, should be 4 to 6 inches away from the wall. Fill in the hole, making sure not to leave air pockets where the roots could dry out. Loosely tie the tree to the lowest wire with flexible nursery tape.To make the whip branch for the espalier, you'll need to prune it. Although you could do the other steps here from fall to spring, pruning should always wait until late winter or early spring, while the whip is still dormant. Make an angled cut about two inches above the set of buds nearest the lowest wire.
Step 4: Begin training.
From the pruning cut in step 3, let three new buds grow: two branches and a vertical leader. Young trees grow faster in an upward direction, so train the side branches for a first season on bamboo sticks tied diagonally to the frame. In the fall, lower the sticks and branches to the first wire. Tie the branches to the wire and remove the sticks to use again.
Step 5: Train the next tier.
After the vertical leader reaches the second wire, prune the top as you did in step 3. Repeat the training on the bamboo sticks from step 4. At the end of this second season, the tree should look like the illustration at right. Lower the branches to the wire as before and prune the leader again in late winter.