Turning fruit trees into cordons .....

[binley100]

After reading Snadgers post on BM's thread about Lidl fruit trees, I was wondering how easy is it to turn them into cordons and how do I go about it ?

[FB.]

Unfortunately, most fruit trees are bush-trained.
During their first year or two, they therefore have lower branches removed and are made to branch at about 3-4ft from the ground.
This generally means a bare stem of 3ft, followed by 3-5 branches forming a crown at 3-4ft above ground.
In these instances, it is difficult to encourage lower branches to re-grow at the lower level.

Alternatively, you could prune away what you don't need of your bush tree and leave only branches that are well-placed to form the backbone of a makeshift cordon structure.
For example: makeshift "double" cordons could be formed from the two strongest upright branches of a bush-trained tree.

But......
It would be better to acquire a one-year maiden and train it into a cordon, since many maidens branch freely all the way down to the ground and won't need much pruning to become cordons (especially if you choose the right varieties: less vigorous varieties tend to branch and form spurs more freely).

Maidens can be had for as little as £8 + postage (depending where you shop).

[chris]

Can you stop a cordon growing when it's like 3-4ft high/long? Would that adversely affect production? What's the "normal" length of one... I'd be interested in either m9 or m26. If I can keep them say 4/5ft - I was planning on angling them down one side of the garden...

Thanks for asking that though binley - I was wondering that myself.

[binley100]

Chris, Snadge has given me some detailed instructions on the Lidl fruit tree thread, I did read that you don't let cordons grow more that 6-8ft......