Espalier fruit trees: 3 ways to grow a living fruiting fence

[@malsoonsakit4786]

I shall root as many branches of my fruit trees to transfer to the fences. After saving this video for a year I watched it again to absorb thoroughly each step of your vivid demonstrations

[@massiminitrains]

I'm definitely planning on doing this with some nectarines, peaches, and cherry trees as fans along my back fence. Thanks for all the good info and resources you have provided in these videos!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

You're welcome and thank you so much for your comment!

[@suzannej6073]

Thanks for your clear and thorough explanation. Tremendous help as I tackle my espalier that’s gone wild! 😂

[@GraftingTactick]

This is fantastic way to grow fruit tree. Save lots of spaces and looks absolutely beautiful , last but not least, you can enjoy fruits without climbing on the ladder to pick them👏👏💕🌴🍃☘🌱🌿🌲

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you for the comment! We totally agree!

[@chaosrah]

I wish I had seen this video when I first started my espaliers- great!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Glad you liked it. Hopefully it'll help out long run too.

[@beebob1279]

Impressive. I've just subscribed. If I am allowed by the mrs. to grow fruit trees this will be the way Ill grow them. It looks as though this is the better way for growing fruit in a more limited yard area.

[@maragrace820]

Exactly what I was looking for

[@DinakarJayarajan]

Interesting way to grow fruit trees....I really like the way you explain it......Do you have a video on how you set up the trellis - posts, turnbuckles, etc.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Dinakar Jayarajan Glad you found it helpful. We do have a trellising video in fact! Here’s a link kzbin.info/www/bejne/gabIc2OteJqagKs

[@Torithewanderingma]

Thank you for this. The fruit trees at the nursery that are already espaliered are double the price of regular trees. My question: how did you set up the initial tiered wires? Maybe you already have a video of that - I’ll take a look since this is the first of your vids I’ve come across.

[@WenRolland]

Great video, thanks !

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks and No problem!

[@jenniewilliamsmural]

Great vision and work.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@wolfa5151]

Very clear and competent description. Thanks!👍

[@foodscapingutah5239]

You're welcome! Thanks for your comment.

[@royolstad8532]

Nicely done video, thx

[@andrewdavis6917]

I've been doing two tiers for my peach trees and now this yr have a couple of Bradford pears that I have had for a full year. It looks amazing when the peach trees flower in the early Spring.

[@kaittemurry4740]

I'm doing mine on 16 ft cattle fences sideways.. I planted my apple trees on the end to grow to the other end and my pear tree in the center to grow both ways.. should I move my apple trees to the center of the fence like my pear tree this year?? I know they will go into plant shock.. but I'm thinking they will do better.. yes or no

[@MsVonruffy]

Thank you - very informative. I have subscribed.

[@peca1n]

Great video

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Thanks!

[@suzyq6767]

Thanks very much. I've been working on this idea. One question. I saw on another video that peaches and nectarines only grow on second-ye wood. Is that true? If so, how do you prune and train peaches and nectarines so that you get fruit rather than just vegetation? I'm stumped with this one. I hope you see this and have time to answer. Thanks for a fascinating video. I bought a new home in UT with a tiny lot. This is the only way I can figure out how to have fruit growing in my postage stamp yard. Thanks for your help.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Yes, Peaches and nectarines are a little harder to espalier, no doubt, with the fruiting wood always on last year’s growth. We just treat it as more informal where we have to always think about trying to bring some renewal wood from the bottom and removing old wood toward the top.

[@barbaraferron7994]

I have a peach tree that has Four trunks growing away from each other a load of fruit might break them. I want to tie adjacent branches so they grow together to weave the four into a basket.

[@davefacer1311]

Thanks for the video! Why do you cut some shoots to the base and some 3 leaves up?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

You're welcome! For the ones where we cut leaving 3 leaves it is that we are trying to encourage the development of fruiting wood close to the structure. For apples and pears we are looking for spurs (they look like little stubs, where the flowers and fruit grow) and if there is a gap where there aren't very many spurs, cutting shoots at 3 leaves can stimulate spurs to grow on the wood that you leave.

[@jenniewilliamsmural]

Wow, great! Warmest regards Jennie

[@ATGcull]

This is great, im doing this with my peach trees. do you prune throughout growing season?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We do most of the pruning toward the end of June or early July but we might make a few cuts other months if things are growing the wrong way or totally out of balance.

[@xaviergregorio7698]

Update video soon!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We'll see what we can do! Did you see this update on the Belgian fence from last summer? kzbin.info/www/bejne/fH-2n5SqbLapl7s

[@thomashom7514]

Jack Tripper is a gardener!

[@RichardMacbeth]

How do you determine how much the distence between the wires on the post foe apples and pears?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Distance between wires can vary depending on where branches is on the trees. For apples and pears, 18" is common but 12" works fine too. If you are thinking you will do horizontal cordons, I'd factor in how many tiers you'd like. If you want two, three, four, etc tier in the space you have up to the top of your structure.

[@sarahswenson9202]

I just planted a 3 tier apple, "Hat Trick". I'd love this tree to have a 4th tier (as you mentioned in the video). Do you know if this is possible with this type of grafted tree? Also, I can't seem to find out how wide this tree will grow if allowed unchecked. Any ideas? Thank you!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Almost any apple should work fine to train to espalier, so to get a 4th tier you could just take two vigorous shoots in the middle of the current top (3rd) tier and train them on to wire above the third tier. As for size without pruning, that would mostly depend on the rootstock. I'd see if you can find out what rootstock you have. Semi-dwarf apples aren't really dwarfed that much, usually still 15-20ft. Dwarf rootstocks would stay much smaller. In general though, I'd recommend staying on top of the pruning if you are doing espalier.

[@peterstevens4223]

G00D Afternoon from Auckland, New Zealand it’s Sunday, February 9, 2020.

[@flyinUtah]

What part of Utah are you in it kinda looks like Ogden area 🤔

[@magicalcuriosities7062]

Thank you for showing this, I’m going to plant a whole wall of different trees. Question about informal. If i do informal for an apple tree, will i be able to get more tree and more apples sooner? With the ladder style its one level per year right? If you did a fan you could have it spread throughout the wall faster I’m thinking....is this right? I’m just wanting more fruit faster, haha.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

That sounds like it makes sense to me and apples can definitely make a nice fan style. I'd say go for it if it works best for your design/situation. -One of the drawbacks of the fan shape, and advantages of the laddered tiers, is that the tiers make it easier to grow the tree wide. That way you can get the tree to spread from one side to the other even at lower levels.

[@magicalcuriosities7062]

@@foodscapingutah5239 thanks for the advice, your the best. I absolutely LOVE your channel and foodscape design, and of course generous advice on the gardening group on facebook. I am planting 8 trees today on my wall! I'm SUPER scared of pruning it wrong and ruining the tree. I might have to tag you in the utah gardening group and get your take on it with pictures (wish youtube would let you post pics in comments).

[@foodscapingutah5239]

@@magicalcuriosities7062 Great! Glad you enjoy the videos and channel. Have fun planting trees! ...tree planting day is one of my favorite days of the year.

[@merlin2111]

Where can you purchase espalier multi-grafted trees like your apples? I love that idea but I can't find them online anywhere.

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Raintree Nursery in WA has some options in apple and maybe pears. They may be phasing out the multi-grafted espalier though. Ours have worked just fine but I think one potential drawback of multi grafted is that some varieties tend to dominate others because of differences in vigor. We try to make up for that with pruning. Here's one at Raintree but it says 'sold out' at the moment 😏raintreenursery.com/products/3-tier-apple-espalier-combo-tree-3-varieties?_pos=7&_sid=7ba6f5bfa&_ss=r

[@sherryevans8899]

I love your espalier videos! I’d love to do the same across a 30’ span. Several each of apple, cherry, pear, plum, peach, and nectarine. But the peach and nectarine, will it be a problem with this style?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Glad you like the videos! For the peach and nectarine it's just a little more difficult to train them formally -like with horizontal cordons (like 3 tier). But, it isn't too difficult to prune them in the informal fan style like we showed at the beginning of the video. What makes them more challenging to manage formally is that they produce fruit only on 1 year-old wood (last year's wood). So, eventually the fruit is primarily only on the edge of the structure, whereas apples and pears produce fruit on spurs that will produce fruit in the same spot for years.

[@AshleyBellNYC]

@@foodscapingutah5239 are cherries more like peach/nectarines in this regard, or more like apples/pears, or something else? I understand that they are a bit more difficult for espalier since they are hardwood trees, but I would really love to try, if possible. thank you! this video was so helpful.

[@kaittemurry4740]

I'm setting one up on cattle panels. Is 5 feets between enough room??

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Hi Kaitte, I think 5 feet between trees is too tight for the trees we usually grow. I’d recommend 8 to 15 feet for most semidwarf rootstocks. Maybe you could find dwarf rootstocks and go closer.

[@jennybaez-cepeda4919]

I’m trying to start pears and apples Espalier form. How far apart should Place my post. Can I put more than one tree between post?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We love apples and pears on espalier. I’d place your posts somewhere between 8 to 15 feet apart. Ours are 10 feet apart and we have one tree between each post. That’s what I would suggest unless you are planning an overlapping design like a Belgian fence where the trees are trained to a lattice design. You could check out our Belgian fence video if you want to see more on how we set that up

[@jennybaez-cepeda4919]

Foodscaping Utah Thank you very much. Love ur channel. I learned a lot

[@ZukiGrL1]

How far away from a wooden fence do you plant an apple espalier tree? Is 6" too close??

[@foodscapingutah5239]

I'd give it a bit more space if you have space available. I think many people espalier at 12" or maybe even 9" from walls/fences. Anything is possible if you stay on top of the pruning, but at 6", I think you'd have shoots that smash into the fence if you didn't prune them right away, especially in a few years when the tree is more established those shoots will grow fast. Another thing to think about, if you have plenty of room, sometimes it's nice to be able to get in between tree and the fence to prune, harvest, etc from the other side.

[@ZukiGrL1]

@@foodscapingutah5239 Thank you for the advice!

[@LDaw_96]

Bamboo in Utah will not winter over very well. It might last 2years. Then it will dry and split. What can be used in that 3rd method to last?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

The bamboo is more just to give you something to tie to while training at the angle you want. The branches and wires will be the long term support. Our bamboo have lasted decently, now in their 3rd year.

[@DucPham-ok5ko]

I'm living in MN ( zone 4 B ). I got some Asian pear trees. I watched a lot of clips about pruning . I'm confusing about that. What's different between summer pruning and winter pruning ? which one for more fruit and which one for shape

[@foodscapingutah5239]

We prune in the summer for size control, shape (especially in espalier) and for more fruit because we try to improve sun exposure (which improves photosynthesis efficiency) and air circulation. In the winter we might prune for shape as well but mostly to remove larger limbs our restructure the tree. Winter is for structure. In our case we take a lot more growth off in the summer than in the winter. Hope this helps!

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Good luck with those MN winters! We lived in Minneapolis for four years! Great place to live but brutal weather 😊

[@jessebrown1497]

Safety wire lasts longer than bread ties.

[@MohamedAhmed-dr2kz]

Hey there, how do you keep the trees fruiting? I thought stone fruit only blossom on 1+ year branches? I have mainly stone fruit but also one apple

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Apples and pears are definitely easy for espalier, because just as you mentioned, they can be permanently trained to a form and will continue fruiting. With the stone fruit, like the nectarine shown for the 'informal fan' shape, we have to do some 'renewal' pruning where you are working to remove old wood toward the bottom of the shape and retraining new wood into the gaps that it leaves. It certainly isn't as clean and easy, but it seems to work as long as you see it as a continual process. We have had lots of fruit every year.

[@pestandlawnginja]

Let's do a collaboration vid. I bought a few trees. Planning on doing a video. Hit me up on facebook if you're interested

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Will do!

[@michaelab2549]

is the Belgian fence on m27 rootstock ?

[@foodscapingutah5239]

Hi Michael, they are actually on a semi-dwarfing rootstock, whereas I believe m27 is more fully dwarfing. I'll see if I can track down which semi-dwarfing rootstock we used, I'm thinking EMLA 26.

[@michaelab2549]

@@foodscapingutah5239 thanks for the reply

[@foodscapingutah5239]

​@@michaelab2549 Hi Michael. The rootstock we used that year was EMLA 7. -I believe it's fairly similar to EMLA 26 in terms of dwarfing traits and other characteristics.