Topic: Help with fruit tree spacing - growing as fans

[OllieC]

I've bought 3 new fruit trees for the back garden & am trying to work out how far apart the should be. All 3 are on Semi-Dwarf rootstock and will be grown as fans on a WSW facing wall. They are:
Apple on M26
Apricot on Tounel
Cherry on Gesila (or Giesla as Blackmoor call it)

I think I may have been a bit optimistic - the garden's not huge & I've put them in about 6ft apart. Am thinking I may have to dig out the middle one & find it somewhere else.

Any thoughts/advice please?

[goodlife]

Your cherry and apricot are the ones that will grow largest so ideally you would plant them outside and apple in middle..this way if/when things start getting bit crouded atleast you can start training them more outwards..like lopsided fans ;D
In theory you should get away with that spacing but you will need keep top of your pruning and training and maybe you have to result more drastic measure severy 5yrs or so by taking odd larger branch out and start training replacement branch again.

[jennym]

I think 6 ft is a touch optimistic - I'd use 8 to 10ft minimum really, so if you've only just put them in then you could move them or one quickly, and the apple would probably do ok elsewhere, so I'd choose that one to move.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If they're semi-dwarfing I'd use 12-15 feet.

[OllieC]

Thanks you 3 - I've hoiked out an old pretty but fairly straggly rose & moved the middle Apricot to give them all 12ish ft.

Ollie