[boogaloo]

Hi folks

Oh, I'm thoroughly confused. Trying to plant an espalier apple tree, as I've not got much room for a freestanding one, and I've got a nice bare SE facing wall. A question though. I've watched countless youtube videos and looked at many many websites but I always seem to get sensible answers from this site!

Do I need to bend the top of the tree to form one of the horizontals, or should I simply let the main 'trunk' continue to be the vertical, simply training appropriately placed branches as the horizontals? Sites seem to differ, and I'm not sure what the merits are of either (or whether it really matters two hoots).

Also I was planning to just run a reasonably strong length of wire between two eyelets screwed into the fence, however the 'thorough' way to do it seems to be to use heavy duty cables that can be tensioned. Is that so important when it's already next to a fence for support / wind cover? Was hoping not to have to fork out on new gubbins, but I will do if required.

Any advice much appreciated!

Boog

[mattwragg94]

how tall is your tree and how tall do you want it to grow -  if you dont want it to grow any taller bend the top of the tree over! iver just read in my book that the wires supporting the tree should have tension!

[boogaloo]

Thanks for the reply. Plan was that I'd grow it 3 'tiers' high, about 1m in total.

[mumofstig]

The the top of the tree gets pruned each year to make the laterals form...but the RHS says it better than I can  
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=319

[boogaloo]

It was the RHS one that I ended up following, funnily enough, but I wanted to check. Thanks for the advice folks. I'll mabe bend the top over when it reaches the 3rd tier.

Cheers

Boog