Selecting Your Site and Tree
Plant your trees in full sun (6 to 8 hours a day) on well drained, fertile soil about 15 feet apart. A south, east, or west facing wall, fence, or building is best. You'll have to support the developing branches with a trellis system, so select a site where you can run a wire trellis outlining the ultimate shape of the tree. To help you along, if you have a rock, brick, or stone wall, sketch out the ultimate shape of the tree (usually three branch tiers spaced 2 feet apart with an ultimate height of 6 feet and width of 6 to 7 feet) with chalk on the wall. This will give you a design to follow. Anchor your wires into the wall or attach them to the fence.
While most trees can be espaliered, for a horizontal cordon system, choose a dwarf or semi-dwarf, variety. Make sure the espaliered tree is at least 6 inches away from the house so it doesn't effect the house siding.
Prune espaliered trees 2 to 3 times in winter and summer to keep the shape and growth habit.
Training the Young Tree
Now the fun begins. Here's a step by step process of training your young tree.
Purchase one-year old whips (small, unbranched trunk) from your nursery and plant in spring.
Plant your whip in the middle of your designed trellis wire system about 6 inches away from the wall or structure.
Select a bud about 2 feet above the base of the graft union and prune off the rest of the whip just above it.
Branches will begin to grow out from below the cut. Select the strongest 3 shoots and trim away the rest. When the shoots are 3 to 4 inches long, tie one to the right hand side wire and another one to the left hand side wire trellis.
The third shoot will be allowed to grow vertically to the next horizontal level and repeat the pruning and training process.
Any vertical or errant shoots that develop on the lateral tiers should be pruned back to 5 inches tall to create fruiting spurs (short branches with flower buds) which will be the locations of future fruits.
You can create 3 to 4 horizontal trellises with your fruit tree depending on the size of the wall or structure.
Keeping it Going
It may take 3 to 5 years to get the entire fruit tree structure in place. Your tree, though, should start bearing fruit in a few years. Prune out any developing fruit the first few years. Remove any vertical shoots, suckers, and water sprouts each year and shorten horizontal branches back to create a fruiting spur. You may have to prune 2 to 3 times a year to keep the tree in shape. Because there will be more fruiting spurs produced on a horizontal branch than a vertical branch, eventually you will get a great number of fruits setting on your espaliered tree. Be sure to make the wire trellis and supports strong enough to hold the tree laden with fruit in place.
Each year continue pruning to maintain the shape of the espalier, and water and fertilize the tree to keep it healthy. Some old espaliered trees have lateral branches that are so thick they no longer need wire support and can be used to create an espaliered fence. Enjoy your work of art.
Millet (641-)
