Apple espalier from a feathered maiden

[BUFFS]

even with the bad summer,our bramley (four tier) espalier has given a great crop,we have let it grow to shape first but FBs advice on here really makes the difference,we would have had it cropping far too early but for his input....thank you...

[FB.]

Couple of espalier pictures:

[Martin H]

It's been a year since the last pic, so here's an update.

My Braeburn 2-tier espalier is nice and healthy and I'm hopeful for a few apples from it this year. Last year I let one ripen just to check that I had been sent the right variety.

It was delish!

Roll on November...

[DuncanM]

Great work Martin, that's looking fantastic.

I wish I could fast forward a few years to see how my espaliers turn out!

[Martin H]

Here's the latest picture of my Braeburn espalier now I've done the summer pruning. I've thinned the fruit out but maybe there's still too many, what do you think?

[BigV]

I have been looking at the posts on cordon apple trees.Earlier this year I ordered maidens to turn into stepovers.What came were feathered maidens which had all ready been pruned rather oddly I thought.After several rather acrimonious emails I accepted the trees.I asked for M27. However all were at least 3ft tall. So I have decided to run with cordoned.We have not pruned yet but am I right in assuming that anytime now I can prune for spur fruiting?
Also four, years ago I bought an offer for for fruit trees,an apple,pear,plum and cherry.All are doing well but the supposedly Victoria plum which has fruited this year has produced small roundish purple fruit,nothing like the Victorias I have grown in the past .Both lots were purchased from supposedly reputable growers,but am I just unlucky ?


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[Martin H]

Here's a pic of the same plant now, just about to burst into blossom. It's come a long way in 3 years:

[Martin H]

Wow, doesn't time fly! Here is the plant today following summer pruning last week:

[Martin H]

Hmm. My Braeburn 2-tier espalier seems to have settled into biennal mode. Lots of fruit in 2015 and 2017; virtually nothing in 2016 and hardly any blossom this year either.

Any suggestions on how to bring it back to an annual schedule? Should I feed it? Or prune it differently (it's just been having summer pruning)?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[nickdub]

Feed it definitely, as its quite a small tree it needs nutrients to crop - potash and nitrogen - you'll probably have to summer prune too to keep the shape.

The biennial thing is a nuisance, but if you are prepared to thin a lot of the small apples at the end of June so that it only carries a small crop, you should be able to right it. In other words if you cut down the number of fruit to half what it has carried in an "on year" by thinning, then the next year you should get the other half when it would otherwise have had none. Of course if there is a late frost which wipes out the crop or a long period of drought, then the tree will be affected by that too, but that's the nature of fruit growing.

[Martin H]

Thanks MoM. I'll try a generous feed of chicken manure pellets now to get it off to a good start and then a few helpings of tomato feed in the summer to encourage bud production.

The thinning sounds like a good idea too, I'll try to remember next year to remove more fruit than I did last time

[nickdub]

You're very welcome - the tree looks really healthy - you did a great job on shaping it BTW.

One thing, thinning fruit on that size of tree is not such a daunting job. I've got a couple of Ashmead Kernel trees which are about 30' high and inclined to try to go biennial, if I let them over-crop. Trying to knock 100's of immature apples off with a long stick is a bit of a slog :-)

[Lardman]

You're going to be fighting nature a bit on that too which never helps as braeburn tends to biennial bearing anyway. I'd do as nick suggests, feed well and remove fruit but rather than thinning the apples Id be pruning the spurs back to make the arms less fluffy.

If I recall you're on M27, when you think about it that's a lot of tree for a dwarf stock to support if it wasn't espaliered it would look much bigger. What's your yield like in a on year? I would probably leave just 8 or so apples per arm and that would be pushing it Im sure I've read 5Kgs is a good yield for M27.

It's one of the reasons I oversized my rootstocks, it's easier to snip stuff off but it's very difficult to increase vigor. If you're not happy with the bearing now you're familiar with the tree and the principles why not grab yourself an MM106 or even M26 and graft the prunings onto it. You can easily shape it in a pot, if you're lucky you should be able to replicate a 2 tier tree by 2020, at which point if it's better behaved you could swap it with the M27.