[3759allen]

I brought an assortment of fruit trees at the beginning of the year (2 x cherry, apple, pear, apricot, peach, plum). i must admit to the purchase being a bit of a whim as they were in a very good sale. i prob should have looked into it a bit more, DOH.

any way they are all doing pretty well, especially cherry, plum and apricot. the apple and pear were a bit on the slow side, but did pick up and all look healthy.

i'm hoping i can train them all along wires in a cordon fashion. i've heard that fruit with stones don't like this, but some web sites say it's ok. either way i haven't got room to grow large tree's so they're going to have to be cordon.

anyway if you guys and girls would be so kind i need as much advice, tips and views about how and when to prune the tree's.

thanks in advance.

[Goosegirl]

I've never tried it but the pruning advice in my RHS book looks quite good. It could depend on what rootstock they are grafted on - are they dwarf ones?

[mumofstig]

Are they already planted at an angle and tied to wires?  If possible give the stone fruits a bit more room and fan-train them.

This link shows winter pruning for cordons
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[3759allen]

thanks for the replies.

yes they are on dwarf root stocks, that i did check but that is as much research that i did do.

i think i may be getting confused with cordon and fan training. i planted them straight up and kind of assumed that i would just tie the branches to the wires (thinking about it this would make a fan shape).

i'm guessing that i need prune the branches that aren't going towards the wires right back and train the side branches into the fan shape.

do any of you know what the best website would be to look at for and idiots guide to prune them into a fan?

thanks.

[mumofstig]

I think you mean espalier like this

How to prune espaliers here..............
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[3759allen]

managed to find some info on different types of pruning (never knew there was so many ways to train them). making my head hurt trying to understand it all.

i think fan training would be the best for me as i can train all the tree's in the same way (they don't recommend espalier for stoned fruits).

seems that i should have pruned the tree's when i planted them. now i'm going to find it really hard to prune back so many branches. i suppose the answer is to grow a pair and trust what the experts say.

thanks for the replies.

[Kristen]

seems that i should have pruned the tree's when i planted them. now i'm going to find it really hard to prune back so many branches. i suppose the answer is to grow a pair and trust what the experts say.

In the case of Apples, you will be surprised how quickly they grow back, so don't be worried about having to cut them back hard to get the training started.  No experience of training other fruit so can't comment on the others, but hopefully they too will be "quick".

This was my Espallier, planted early last Spring (I ordered Maidens, but they actually shipped feathered maidens, so I was able to make the first row from them, and grew the second row in the first year - hope that makes sense! - so a year ahead of what would be normal.


June 2013


August 2014


One of them "face on" showing the growth this year.

[3759allen]

after looking at many diagrams i looked at my tree's to see how to go about the pruning.

however after looking at them it seems like the 2 branches that i should be leaving (to make a fork shape) to start the fan look pretty weak, and it would mean that i would have cut through a large diameter main stem.

i'm wondering if it would be possible to combine the espalier and fan method? so my thinking is to keep the main stem similar to the aspalier method but rather than train them horizontal along wires, train them at a 45 degree angle similar to the fan method. i hope this makes sense