One armed espaliers

[mc1970]

Hello,

I was looking for a little bit of advice regarding my first attempts at espalier training apple trees. I followed the advice of many websites and cut back my first year maiden apple trees to just below the first wire (at 30cm's from the ground). All seemed well to start with and two laterals and one horizontal ll reached around 5 cms so i cut off all other unrequired bud growth.
Now the bad news.... On two of the 3 trees the shoot on one of the laterals has been eaten cleanly off by an unknown predator. This seems to have had the same effect as pruning and these branches have not regrown since.
I am hopeful that one may resprout as it has formed a small bud shape on the end but the progress is painfully slow.
The other laterals on the 'one armed' trees have flourished but I'm at a loss as to how to reestablish the shape of the trees. Could I graft on the current vertical branch when i prune back for the second tier next spring ?

I'm deperately looking for some guidance on this as I don't want to have to dig up and start again with new maidens for next year.

I could post some pictures if need be.

Many thanks,

Scott

[FB.]

I think there's a good chance that you can do something to re-shape them.
A few pictures would be useful, to fully understand what's wrong and what might be able to be done. A close-up and a far out view would be helpful.
Also, knowing the age when bought, the age now, the variety, rootstock, your approximate location/soil/climate conditions will be very useful additional information.

[ohbeary]

Yup, FB wil probly know, I could sugest that a shoot close to the main stem on the lonley lateral be trained across to fill the space, but although it will do the job it may look a little untidy close up.

[mc1970]

Hi and thanks for taking the time to post your responses. I've taken a few pictures including two close ups of the non-growing laterals which are from my two different trees.
On the first one you might be able to make out the small bud which I'm really hoping will start regrowing at some point. The second pic is the one which doesn't look so promising. My thoughts were that, when I prune back the main upward shoot to the second wire just before next spring, I could maybe think about grafting it on as a lateral. Is this a possibility or would it leave the tree with a weak point? The idea of training a shoot from the opposite lateral could be one to try or there any other good ideas out there?

For info the trees are M26's , elstar and braeburn, I'm in South Edinburgh and the trees are against a sheltered south facing fence with good drainage. They were "first year" bare root maiden whips when planted in March and I mixed in a fair bit of compost and some bone meal in to the soil when I planted them. The third tree (not pictured) is fine.

I'm new to a lot of gardening stuff but have caught the bug this year big time.

I know that these apple varieties might not be suited to scottish climate but I thought I'd give it a try as they're growing in a bit of a suntrap.

Many thanks again,

Scott.

[FB.]

The two shoots in pictures one and two will be able to grow into new branches if you manage the trees properly.

I can see several ways to achieve what you want. I'll call this "plan A" because I might get a better idea. In any case, you won't need to do much until winter, so there's plenty of time to think about what to do.

I would make sure that for the next couple of years, they are extremely well fed (especially nitrogen), to get them growing very strongly. Good, regular watering will also make them grow faster. A strong-growing tree is much easier to quickly shape. With such heavy fertilisation, fruit quality will be poor until the heavy fertilisation ceases - you will have tasteless or even bad-tasting fruit that may be riddled with bitter pit and poor storage ability. Don't worry, the fruit will get better as the trees age.
Plants store nutrients for the following season, so get them well-fed before leaf fall and they will grow stronger next year.

The simplest answer would be, in winter, to cut the upright leader down to 1 bud above the weak shoot that's trying to grow into a new arm.
The weak shoot should grow stronger (giving you a new arm) and the bud above can be used to grow a new leader.

With all the feeding and watering, you'll get lots of new growth.
As a result, it will become very attractive to aphids. Deal with them as a top priority, or the tree will become stunted and deformed (I would "nuke" them with pesticide in your situation since natural predators often arrive too late to prevent deformity of shoots).
Woolly aphids may not be in your area, but they absolutely must be eradicated on sighting (pesticides won't get through their protective woolly coat, so you must remove them by hand before they run riot), or your main structure will always be ugly, weak and prone to canker. Canker on an espalier or fan is a real pain if you have to lose an arm to remove a rapidly-spreading canker.

[FB.]

I also meant to say that if your short shoots in the pictures aren't good enouugh for your needs, you could cut the leader back to 2-3 buds and re-grow both the leader and the missing arm next year.

The existing arm, when lowered to horizontal, should grow much slower, so the others will have time to catch up. You could even consider the new "arm" being lowered into position gradually over a couple of years, to speed up it's growth and allow it to catch up with the existing arm. The more upright a shoot or the nearer the top of the tree, the stronger is it likely to grow.

[valmarg]

The apple that has been eaten off on one side, have you thought of changing from espalier to cordon training.

With regard to getting rid of woolly aphid, the old method was to wipe the affected sites with cotton wool drenched in methylated spirits.

valmarg

[mc1970]

Many many thanks for the replies and especially to FB.

I plan to follow your advice FB and go with regrowing the missing arm on both the trees next year by allowing the 'tip buds' to regrow from the small shoots.

I'll also start adding fertiliser regularly to the soil. I was originally only going to feed once a year in Late Feb/Early March just before the growing season restarts. I'll look out for a high nitrogen feed especially..

As far as aphids go, I don't think the wooly type are an issue round here but I'll keep on top of the greenfly... little blighters...

As I've said before, many thanks again for this help. I was hoping that something could be done to keep the espallier type shape of the trees without having to start all over again..

Cheers (till next time ),
Scott.