So I have been mostly quiet about the espalier since we started on this retaining wall/pool reno project, but I thought I would make mention of it.
A few folks have asked about how an espalier can grow fruit when
So I have been mostly quiet about the espalier since we started on this retaining wall/pool reno project, but I thought I would make mention of it.
A few folks have asked about how an espalier can grow fruit when you keep cutting its branches off, others are wondering how a tree can grow despite the stresses of constantly cutting it back, and a few think its downright unnattural to grow a treet to a shape like a belgian fence.
How an Espaliered apple tree bears fruit, despite being cut back so much...Many fruit trees (most, actually) are referred to as "tip-bearing". These trees grow their fruit out on the ends of branches, where the sun will ripen the fruit and it will far as far from the trunk as possible in the hopes of the fruit spreading and growing new trees. If you grow a tip bearing fruit tree, the will do well in most applications, but not in an espalier. In an espalier you would constantly be cutting off the tips of branches that bear the fruit, and so, you would never harvest an apple (or pear, or whatever).
By some quirk of genetics, some varieties of trees are not tip bearing. For whatever reason, nature developed these trees to develop fruit buds along the branches at random spots. These trees are referred to as "spur bearing." A spur bearing tree will do very well in an espalier