I made a mistake pruning my espalier apple trees. Advice, please!

8 years ago

I have three newly-planted dwarf apple trees for my first foray into espalier. I'm doing the style with three horizontal wires.

I cut the trees down to around 14" tall to force new growth down low on the tree. Then we put up the trellis and support wire. And now, whoops, I see that the wire is higher than the cut. The wire is supposed to be a couple of inches below the first cut. In hindsight, I made that first cut too low. Bummer.

Obviously, I can move the wire, although I like the height that it's at because I'd have room to grow tulips or lettuce underneath the lowest tier of apple branches. But I'm looking at how the trees have responded to that initial pruning, and the buds below the cut didn't spring to life as I'd hoped. On two of the trees, there's only one new shoot growing where I made the cut. I need 3 (one to go left, one to go right, one to go up). There are shoots coming along down lower, but they are too low to be useful, I think.

So I wonder if I can let the new sprout on those trees grow up a a bit past the wire, then cut it, and then prompt new shoots to come off of that new growth?

On the third tree I have lots of sprouts and lots of options.

I'm open to suggestions! Thank you.

This is a Spartan on a mini-dwarf rootstock. You can see there is only one good shoot at the top.

This is Honeycrisp on a dwarf rootstock. Similar situation as the first one.

This is Liberty, on a dwarf rootstock. Many more options on this one, but I'm still not exactly sure what my next move should be.

Featured Answer

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

8 years ago

Ken, this is espaliering, vastly different from pruning any old tree. Karin I think you'll be fine. Once you start bending the shoots down to the horizontal more buds should break.

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Comments (9)

Embothrium
8 years ago
It's hard to believe these fine details you are worrying about here matter that much. Why, specifically is the lowest wire supposed to be below the top cut?
thebeun
8 years ago
You'll be just fine. I have made a few pruning errors on my Belgian fence espalier (Ashmead's Kernel on M27), and the new growth can be bent and coaxed to fill any space you choose. From your pics it looks like you've got a nice flush of new growth coming in below the wire which can be trained to become your lower "arms" while they're still soft and pliable. On a related note, I highly recommend getting some soft-tie wire for training. It's gentle on the tender growth and easy to use. It looks like this.
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karin_mt
Original Author
8 years ago
So that you can train the horizontal branches out onto the wires - in a nice, geometric way, I guess? But I see your point.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
three newly-planted

==>>> i would not have pruned a new transplant.. for at least a year.. and maybe two .. so the tree had food making machines .. leaves.. to grow a root mass to support the newly planted tree ...

you need to start thinking in tree time.. which is years if not decades ... not out current world of instant gratification ...

i am sure orchard peeps do things much differently than i would ...

in tree time.. a bad pruning cut means little ... presuming the trees live ... they will outgrow it ....

ken
karin_mt
Original Author
8 years ago
I hear you, but this is how every source said to do espalier. If I left them unpruned, they'd send all their energy upward, which is not what I'm after. The trick is to prompt the tree to make buds down low, which it otherwise would not do.
fireballsocal
8 years ago
I also think you will be fine. I can't think of any single one of my trees that turned out how I envisioned it to and they are all doing great. I would rub off or prune off those super low suckers. Then, on the first 2 trees, tie off both shoots along the wire in either direction. In time, you will get more shoots from that now horizontal branch that you can train to the other side, and then more that will go up to the next wire. It might take several years to get branches trained to each wire but that is normal for a beginner.
karin_mt thanked fireballsocal
karin_mt
Original Author
8 years ago
Awesome. Thank you Fireball and Floral. I didn't realize that bending the branch horizontally would prompt more buds to break. That should work out fine, then. Appreciate your advice!
mes111
8 years ago
It takes NO TIME for a young tree to fix our mistakes. ;)

Let the new shoots grow to the wire and bend them to the wire. By this fall those shoots might be 4 feet tall and still flexible. Tie them down before inter and by spring they will have hardened into that position.

Trim off the growth below the highest growth as they will want to become the "tree" and compete with anything that is trying to grow above especially if you leave them vertical and they are too low to bend to horizontal.

Mike
karin_mt thanked mes111