[Heifer73]

Hi

How does everyone support their fruit trees :?:

I have read in most of my gardening books that I should put in stakes with wire across and grow them up this.

Help needed please

[muntjac]

that is using a method of wires attached to posts and its called .cordon or espallier training .this depends on what space you havand what you want from your trees .espalier is time consuming  ( as is cordon ) but  is usually used up against walls  and cordon is an open field method for normal fruit trees growing as in an orchard you dont need this method unless your growing it this way for some reason  .to support them i just use a 3 inch round post put into the ground at an angle of 10 oclock to the tree and secure using a tree band from your garden supppliers .remember also to fit a grease band to the tree about a foot above the soil level , this stops bugs crawling up

[Trillium]

I grow regular dwarf and semi dwarf trees and find that when young, they all need staking, either against soft ground and flopping over or strong winds, until they're strong & old enough to stand by themselves. Best time is when you first plant so you knew exactly where the roots are; if you don't know, place the stake at least a foot past the trunk and work slowly. I use anything strong at hand: rebar, 2x2's, metal poles (under 1" thick) and use a hammer or sledge to get them into the ground at least 2 ft or they'll be back out too soon. Where possible, apply the Tanglefoot stuff to both the support and the trunk because the pests will climb up both. I also wrap some plastic tree guard at the bottom against rabbit chewing in winter (and against cat clawing). I spray paint the wraps with brown paint for plastic so that the trees don't have those glowing white socks out in the field.