Clean, sharp pruning tools are important and will keep your fruit trees healthy. Learn more in this article.
Years ago I visited the Strathcona Community Orchard in Vancouver, BC. It was a stewardship day and volunteers came to work in the gardens and orchard. It was springtime and the trees were blooming. Some of the volunteers were mulching the trees. Others were weeding around them.
It was a beautiful day and the trees and volunteers all seemed to be thriving! I was inspired by the site but I was dazzled by the rows of espalier apple trees in one part of the garden. Espalier fruit trees are trees on dwarfing rootstocks that are planted side by side, just three or four feet apart! The espalier style is called Diagonal Cordon and it involves training fruit trees to grow at an angle, crafting a flat, two-dimensional surface. With correct espalier pruning three times a year, this style of growing can transform a simple fence into a vibrant wall of fruit.
And so in this article, we will explore why you might want to grow espalier fruit trees, the design options that you can choose from, and finally we will share the secrets of espalier pruning. Let's dig in!
Espalier is a fantastic strategy for anyone who has a small garden and who wants to grow a number of varieties of fruit trees. For example, in a 20-foot long bed, you could potentially plant 5 apple cultivars, each ripening at a different time of the year. Early apples could include Pristine and Yellow Transparent. Mid-season apples could include McIntosh and Liberty. Late-season apples might be Granny Smith and Arkansas Black.
The cornerstone of espalier is the support structure. Be it a trellis or a sturdy fence, having a reliable framework is essential. That’s because you will use a soft tie to gently secure the branches to your fence as you create the design.
Diagonal Cordon is just one way to create an espalier planting; you could also consider fan-shaped or candelabra designs. Whichever option you choose, your journey begins with a young, one-year-old bare root fruit tree, referred to as a whip, sourced from a specialist fruit tree nursery.
The nursery will ship you a dormant whip for planting in the late fall or early spring. This “whip” will look like a branch with roots on it! Here it’s important to research your variety and rootstock carefully to make sure that it will thrive in your unique conditions. You can learn more about that in my course Researching Fruit Trees for Organic Growing Success.
While part of your job is to train the branches by tying them to the trellis or fence, the other part is to nurture them correctly so that they won’t just look pretty…they’ll also produce a harvest! And we do that by pruning our espalier trees three times a year, in winter, early summer and late summer.
So I invited Andy Lewis, the head grower at The Newt in Somerset—an awe-inspiring hotel and garden in England—to teach me about espalier pruning. With over 600 apple trees gracing the landscape, The Newt is nestled in the heart of England’s apple-growing and cider region. In the podcast podcast below, Andy guides us through the meticulous steps of espalier pruning, a practice that can make even the smallest garden spaces more fruitful.
I'm going to summarize espalier pruning here in 4 steps. The illustrations show how these steps will look if you are creating a Diagonal Cordon.
You’ll start by planting your dorman, bare root tree. If you're planting in late fall and live in a cold climate, don’t do this first pruning cut until late winter, just before spring bud break as the tree is not in its growing mode and it won’t be able to heal and protect that wound during a deep freeze. If you are planting your whip in the late winter, just before spring growth begins, do your “whip cut” right after planting. To make your whip cut just past a bud that points in the direction that you want the branch to grow in. You may be cutting off ⅓ to ½ of your young tree! This cuts helps redirect the tree’s energy by channeling it into the remaining buds, so that they will grow more vigorously.
Let your leader, (in Diagonal Cordon it will be that main diagonal shoot), keep growing longer and as it grows, use soft ties to gently tie it to your fence in the right direction. Next, turn your focus to the side branches or lateral branches. They will have grown vigorously and should have lots of leaves. Clip them back to five leaves each. It’s like giving your tree a summer haircut, redirecting its energy to where you want growth.
More new growth will have appeared since June. It will be easy to identify the original five leaves. They may be darker in colour and that part of the branch will be firmer while the newer, summer growth may be lighter green on a more flexible part of the stem. Keep your original five leaves and snip after two new leaves on the side branches. Now you will have 7 leaves! In this cut, at the end of the season, the tree is not going to react with vigorous shoot growth as it did in June. Instead, because it’s the end of the growing season, it will instead channel its energy into developing fruiting buds on these lateral branches. This happens because the tree shifts focus from vegetative growth to fruiting as its active growth phase ends. Leave your leader alone, and be sure it’s tied snugly.
After the August pruning session, the tree will slowly go into dormancy. The leaves will go brown and fall off and now you can see the structure that you have created. Relax, enjoy the winter, then in late winter, just before spring breaks, it’s leader pruning time again. Winter’s task is always to manage the leader, preserving its vigor and direction. So, trim right past a bud that’s going to nudge your leader in the right direction and then the cycle of spring growth will start again.
And that’s it! Year after year you will train the tree into the chosen design. Each year you will shorten lateral branches to help guide your tree into producing delicious and beautiful fruit. Your espalier planting will beautify your garden and give you amazing and healthy fruit to eat. And over the years you will establish a wonderful connection with your tree. Espalier is a dance of patience and connection. It’s art as much as agriculture. And if you love to putter in the garden, it’s a real joy.
There is so much more I’d love to teach you about espalier pruning and other advanced pruning techniques. Interested in learning more? Check out my Fruit Tree Pruning Masterclass at Learn.OrchardPeople.com. Let’s grow together!
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