If you want great knowledge on all aspects of a trellis orchard do a search on Youtube for Terence Robinson with Cornell University. 3 or 4 in depth presentations covering trellis, rootstock, spacing, pruning, etc.. Good luck! I am putting the same thing this spring.

If you want great knowledge on all aspects of a trellis orchard do a search on Youtube for Terence Robinson with Cornell University. 3 or 4 in depth presentations covering trellis, rootstock, spacing, pruning, etc.. Good luck! I am putting the same thing this spring.

Grey..

If you search on you tube " espalier apple trees" you will have more info than you need. See one link below.

CAUTION: When you read articles on the subject (cooperative extensions or other scholarly studies) it will seem that the process of where to plant and how and when to prune are rigid.

Reality is not so rigid. When young, branches are VERY flexible and you can pretty much bend them and shape them and CORRECT mistakes rather easily.

And even when branches don't grow exactly as we would want, you can bend them to the wire. One of my trees refused to grow a side branch where I needed. But, there was one growing lower on the other side of the trunk. This one would normally be pruned off. I let grow it out a bit and when it was long enough, I bent the heck out of it onto the wire on the opposite side of the trunk and it is doing very well. ( just like you can see at the 13 second mark on the youtube vid)

See the link below.

It is very easy to fix mistakes and although, when bare, the branches can look contorted and tortured they still grow huge crops and when they leaf out they still look great.

Hope this helps
Mike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxsbEbaKk-Q

Here is a link that might be useful: ESPALIER FRUIT TREE - GROWING-PRUNING

Thanks for the link Mike. I'm anxious to get started with my trellis. Trees should be here by the end of the month.

Grey...

Once your trees start growing and you see the growth and development as it is actually happening, all the information available starts to make more sense.

Sometimes the material out there (whether reading or video) seems contradictory and it can confuse the spirit right out of you. But once you see it happening "live", in your orchard, you realize how all the seemingly contradictory things do start to fit together and work.

There will surely be some missteps, challenges and problems but if you keep to some basic broad principles you will be fine.

There is no one exclusive methodology. Take all of the tidbits that you see and weave them together to work for you in your orchard and situation.

Most importantly... enjoy.

Mike

I'm happy with the tall spindle apple tree set up. You can have more varieties planted closer together and the pruning and up keep is much easier than growing regular dwarf apple trees.

Here is an interesting trellis system

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imjB4b4ZPN0

They talk about it around half way through the video.