Inherited espalier trees

[Arran]

Yes you have rather Id have left another 2-3 inches on the top, have you left a bud to form a new leader ?

I wish I had left another couple inches now. I'm struggling to identify the buds, especially so on the main leader. I've Googled and YouTube'd but I'm non the wiser. So I don't expect I have got a bud but perhaps I can change that when I chop it down to tier 3 later in the year.

[Arran]

Hi all,

I thought I'd post an update on the trees.
The pear yielded my 3 pears and 2 I've eaten were huge and delicious! I still have one more on the tree.

I have some new arms growing after notching some buds.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2yvdyd2sjj...Pear4.jpg?dl=0

This is the top of the tree, not entirely sure what to do here and would love some advice.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m68mfhwe1e...Pear5.jpg?dl=0

...and the plum. Well I got a ridiculous amount of plums, so have been handing them out to the neighbours and families. I'm now looking to try and tidy this chap up, he is an unruly beast. Has anyone any advice on what I need to chop to sort this fan out?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9m00s9zb0...Plum3.jpg?dl=0

Best Wishes,
Arran

[Guest]

The pear is looking good I would just take out the new branch at the top that is trying to be a leader unless you want to squeeze in another tier.

The plum I would just tie in the branches and reduce the length of the new branches and tidy it up. Are you happy with the shape of it? I find plums tend to be scruffy beggars by nature anyway

[nickdub]

I'd be wary of trying to make a perfect fan out of the plum - I have a feeling its much easier to do more harm than good through over-pruning. My main aim would be to bend any strong growing branches down a bit at a time to either side and so discourage any tendency to grow upright shoots. Its much harder to confine plums to a small space - several of mine are over 30' tall.

I don't have any useful ideas on the pear, so I'll leave that for others.

[Lardman]

The pear has turned out nicely, give it a year or 2 and that should be a very nice feature. As Norfolkgrey suggests, if you can squeeze another tier in leave 1 leader on the left and remove the 2? others on the right hand side, the tree will push the pruning cuts vertically and cover them in time.

Like others, I have failed miserably at getting a plum tree to look like anything which hasn't been dragged through a hedge backwards on a windy day. Clean up anything over the fence height and tie down any strong vertical growth to a horizontal-ish position.

If my plum grafts every take I intend to trying to espalier some but it's supposed to be a fruitless (pun intended) exercise, but I figure even a 30% crop would be more than enough.

[devonuk]

Plum fan looks fab to me, I don't think you will get it tidier than that. On the pear, the top right arm and next tier down would surely grow longer, faster if you untied them and raised their tips to 45 deg or higher until after leaf fall?