I searched high and low on Gardenweb, but found references to espaliers and pleaching few and far between, with very few photos, and on various forum categories (Fruit and Orchards, Vines, Topiary...) Can we get some love for Espalier and Pleaching techniques on Gardenweb? Several posts on espaliers begin with, "Can we get an Espalier forum on Gardenweb?" or "I don't know where to post this..." But I digress...

I planted my eleven custom bench grafts in spring of 2013 two feet apart to be trained into a Belgian fence pattern. I had to replace four grafts that didn't make it through the winter, and another that wasn't thriving with mail-order bareroot trees this spring/early summer. I'm pretty happy with my second-year fence and I'm finally seeing a bit of shape emerging from the row of "sticks" that my SO griped about (and almost drove over in the snow).

Hopefully, some gardeners with more established espaliers will chime in with photos of their projects...a lot of the longer espalier threads are several years old. This is a technique that takes time and patience to see a final product. (I'll take a nice photo or two when I get home.)

Some Q&A?
What rootstock did you use for your project?
I used M7 for the benchgrafted apples, OHxF87 for the benchgrafted pears, and Stark Bro's "semi-dwarf" rootstock for the replacements. I probably could have gone dwarf with the apples, but I wanted the vigor to match the apples somewhat and it was a good match for our amended clay soil. M7 rootstock might be more suited to a candelabra form with longer branches.

How long did your espalier take to bear fruit (if it is fruiting)?
Too early to tell for me, but I'm curious if the judicious pruning and semi-vigorous M7 will produce on the early side (I'm hoping for a few fruits next year).

Your favorite varieties (spur-bearing fruits or ornamentals) for your espalier experiments (or those to avoid)? I wanted to espalier a couple of Flying Dragon bitter oranges, but they didn't make it through the winter in the garage.

Your favorite (pruning or other) mistakes? I've only made 3 pruning cuts that elicited profanity afterward: when cutting off what I thought was a side shoot only to realize it was the growing tip of the neighboring tree poking past where I had them tied together(!) AND when planting the last replacement whip--on the end--I mindlessly lopped it off at 18" like the other whips, only to realize I could have left the extra 18" of leader since it was on the end...that was a tough one.

What do you enjoy about espalier technique? I enjoy the complexity of the form and the meticulous pruning. It already draws focus to the perennial guild bed I've planted under and around it.

Questions you'd like to ask the espalier (or pleaching) scientists here?

I haven't been able to find a definitive answer as to whether or not pears and apples will pleach over time...I have read that grafts usually only take with an interstitial graft, but nothing on the long-term grafting together of two trees. Anyone have insight on apple/pear pleaching?

Tips or tricks you'd like to share?
-I just found a source yesterday that said M7 is incompatible with Northern Spy, one of the grafts that didn't survive...oh, well.
-When weaving a Belgian fence pattern, your first horizontal row of crosses should all cross over the same way for a basketweave (e.g. east branch under/west branch over on each tree)...it seems counterintuitive, but it's really a basketweave at 45 degrees, so the over/under weaving should alternate along each branch. I sat in the garden for 20 minutes before I finally sketched it out to make sure. Don't be a wimp when it comes to pruning, but also, don't space out!

Favorite espalier resources?
OrangePippin.com has a vast database of characteristics to help choose the right apple and pear varieties (old and new)...and I even found a rootstock tree height calculator today. This helped a LOT when weeding out tip-bearing varieties, comparing disease resistance, and planning overlapping pollination and harvest. I wanted a couple with showy flowers, a couple for baking, a cider/juice apple, and the rest for eating/storing
height calculator: http://www.orangepippintrees.com/treeheights.aspx
I got my benchgrafts from wagonwheelorchard, but they are working without the supplemental scion resources they used to have...they also did not offer rootstock choices in 2014 (M111, OHxF87 only). They still have an amazing selection of rare scionwood and a lot of spur-bearing sports not available elsewhere.
A pretty basic tutorial with nice diagrams: http://www.growables.org/information/EspalierNew.htm

If we can't have an espalier forum, we can make a massive informative (and pic-heavy) thread at least!

Interstem (guessing m111/m9) spur was well behaved. Interstem non spur was not. The top graft knot was not pretty. That is after 30 years or trial.

I don't really remember how to post pictures here. I thought they had fixed that and allowed orchards pictures.
These are a bit old. The McIntosh (left) has been allowed to overgrow substantially.
I don't have any pictures uploaded to a sharing site of the newer trees.

I am also interested in all espalier info anyone can share.
Were I work we get requests for them all the time. Just ordered in some from growers on the West Coast who seem to find it odd that I ask what rootstock they are on.

One had apples on M111 and the other gave the answer of
"dwarf". I will give them a try though I wonder how well they will behave long term on size.

The company where I work is actually thinking of growing
some apples on espalier in the field. So any info one can share I sure could use.

Have you seen the list of forums on here? There are some pretty specialized categories. Maybe I wouldn't be so discouraged at the lack of information on espalier if it weren't so hard to get good results with a forum keyword search...and it seems to have gotten worse since the forums were revamped a few years back (now forums/ and forums2/gardenweb). I usually search from Google with the command site:gardenweb.com, since the results show the context of the boldface keywords...maybe it's just the format I don't like on GW searches.

Anyway...Not a great picture, but it shows the center of the row where the shaping has started to look like a Belgian fence. I noted an angle from the top of the driveway this morning that shows the shape a little better...but no time to stop and frame a pic. Of course, it's raining now and I won't get home until nearly dark.

Keep the espaliers coming. I want to see real espaliers maintained by real people. Looking at photos of hundred year old espaliers in the Monticello gardens, formal espaliers maintained by master gardeners in arboretums, and ancient European espaliers in manor gardens can only give me so much encouragement!

I would've liked the forum before but I barely have time for this one lately. Since it's pruning and grafting I think you'd have more experienced answers here. But who knows, it could end up with some espalier wizards.
(I've been on some of them specialized forums that were worthless, like wine is people who want to drink wine and pretend they know something instead of people making wine from their produce last time I looked in.)

I got to thinking it was a revamp/search issue because there should be a lot of posts on espaliers here.

I'd like to make a privacy fence to keep my Dachshunds from barking at the neighbors. But anything low enough to block their vision is low enough for them to strip clean of "balls".

I'll see if there's enough light to get some pictures of my young trees (this was the 2nd year bearing).

These are the young ones. Both are spur type so I'm hoping they both act like the other spur type and need very little pruning. I'm not sure about the McIntosh, it's better than the non-spur McIntosh but not as well behaved as the one next to it so far.
Can't wait to see what they look like in 20-30 years.

One tree in the background you can barely see at the side did start out to be a candelabra but it is a semi-dwarf and required ladder work, plus it didn't want to bear being pruned all the time. I eventually gave up so it gone wild but has a nice structure of tapered horizontal branches as a base. That taught me to bend, spread and tie up all my trees for early training.
The tree directly behind them is like that where the lower branches were pulled down horizontal and tied. That way those two trees grow along the property line instead of across it.