You might add the tatura trellis to your list. But there's the deal, most require a trellis. Either stakes, wires, a V trellis, or some combination. There are many here growing high density plantings without the trellis. One reason commercial orchards go with the trellis systems is they use tractors. Tractors means you need wider alleys. So to maintain production you need to grow the trees taller. Taller trees need support.

For a home orchard where you don't need wide alleys, just plant thick and prune to about 8ft. That's what I and many other home growers are doing. We often prune to open vase or just a bush.

With any planting you need to allow adequate light penetration. I prune to allow 40-50% light penetration to the orchard floor at midday. Also consider placing reflective mulch on the orchard floor to reflect that light back into the canopy. Extenday is one such reflective mulch. Hydro gardens sells one that is black on the bottom for weed control and reflective on top. Without adequate light into the center of the tree, your fruit quality will suffer and the fruiting wood will be shaded out.

The high intensity systems are more designed for high yield than high quality. Are you willing to sacrifice quality for yield? Most of us aren't.

Any of the trees you mention can be planted about 6ft by 8ft and held to 8-9 ft tall. An open canopy will aid disease control in humid climates but may not be needed in a dry CA climate.

Any harvest advantage will be to a system you can harvest, and prune, from the ground. The fertility and water requirements will be about the same as any orchard. Just remember that too much water and nitrogen can lower fruit quality.

The Fruitnut

Sean:

I can only speak for the apples; citrus usually will not respond to high-intensity.

Your zone 10 climate will have a dwarfing effect on the apples; plant on an M7 rootstock spaced 3 feet on center in rows 6 feet apart. Train the trees on a 10' piece of 1/2" electrical conduit (called EMT) that is supported at the top by a wire. Train the tree to the conduit so that the trunk does not have to support the tree. Either tie or weight the branches so that they droop down past horizontal. Cut off any branches that are more than 1/3 the diameter of the trunk.

Let the leader continue to grow straight up past the top wire; it will eventually flop over or even snap (do not prune it). Trees on this system must be on timed drip irrigation, and need a thick layer of mulch at the base. You can expect them to start bearing a few apples the second year (depending on the variety).

I've had trees trained this way in Southern California for about 4 years, and my annual pruning on them is almost zero and they bear heavily with good-quality apples. You can see a video of this on YouTube by searching UMass Fruit advisor, central leader pruning and tall spindle.

Applenut

Applenut,

I was wondering if you could go into more detail about the height of the wires you use and how far apart the supports are. I watched the video I believe you were referring to in the above post, (plus a few others!).

I'd love a little more specifics regarding the training method. I've got most of my apples on G.11 rootstock, a few on G.16, G.30, and M.7.

Thank you!

Here is a link that might be useful: UMass Fruit Advisor: Tall spindle apple planting

The videos are great, aren't they? I especially like the Star Wars-themed one (apple geeks with a sense of humor).

I used 1-1/2" steel posts spaced 15 feet apart with about 9' poking out of the ground. For the EMT I stick 1 foot of it in the ground and wire the top to the guy wire stretched between steel posts; for the guy wire I use aluminum electric fence wire that comes in a big spool at Home Depot. To bend the branches down I have rocks glued to clothespins; other people use the wires like in the video or string.

In Colorado your trees may be more vigorous and only the dwarfing rootstocks work for this. Some of the Geneva series are also sensitive to latent viruses in the scionwood, and so needs to have only virus-free scions grafted onto it.

Applenut

I just started an orchard in spring using the Vertical Axis System. I patterned my system after the system that ACNursery uses.1/2" EMT fastened to a wire at about the 7' mark. The trees are planted at 3' and the rows are 15' apart. I am of the understanding that the Bud9 is the only rootstock that needs the support. My support posts are 40' apart.I also use Drip Irrigation,Of coarse, I also Plant all Dwarf Trees. I am a newbee to orcharding, an the spring plantng was my first. Like Benny Hill used to say, "Learning- Learning All The Time" and thanks to you guys and forums like this!! Later, GALAGALA

Galagala;

The reason for training the tree up the conduit is so it doesn't need to build as much structural wood and can concentrate instead on making apples. This is part of the strategy for getting an earlier return on investment for the growers, not so much that the tree needs bracing against the wind. The same benifit is had on more vigorous rootstocks that do not need support when mature.

Applenut