Topic: orchard

[simmo116]

hi guys been away for a bit hope your all well.
ok down to business. hopefully by the end of the year i'm going to have the othe half of the plot adjacent to mine.
and i'd like to grow fruit trees. trained in Espalier fashion how many trees do you reckon i could get in about a 100 square feet? oh and is there any varieties to avoid desiese prone etc
thanx

[goodlife]

Oh..this is going to be bit tricky to answer. First of all..it all depends what fruits you are thinking of and varieties.
Then you need to think the orientation of the rows so that the trees get maximum amount of sun and don't get shadowed by each other.
If we only talk about apples...perharps easiest would be that you walk the plot put cane down for the first tree having 6 ft space spare on the end of the rows and another 12 ft between each tree and start counting. You will need about 6-8 ft between each row.
Then you need to take account the root stock you are going to order them with...M26 is usually the most common with this sort of set up.
As for varieties and diseases..well majority of the trees have their good and not so good points..but that is the fun of research and picking the varieties that tickles your fancy and suits your soil and climate.
I would recommend making BIG pot of tea..take BIG pile of bickies and sit comfortable on front of your puter and start looking through nurseries websites...it will take some time. Once you've made your list of favourites..check any pollination croups that are listed with the varieties..you should have minimum of 2 matching from same croup..with some cases there is 3 needed, but those are usually specially mentioned.
If you need any ideas of nurseries..let me know and I can 'dig' few out for you.
Ordering from proper fruit nursery you can arrange delivery of your bare rooted trees for later on the winter even if you would order now to insure the availability... ;)
If you are going espalier way..then you've got quite a lot of work ahead with posts and wires on top of the soil cultivation as well. It may be easiest 'just' to turn over everything..make your rows and lay weed suppressing membrane between the rows, leaving just 4 ft 'strips' where trees go as bare soil...so much to think about..and so much write about.. ::)
I hope I've given enough or not too much to deal with.. ;D

[goodlife]

And..that spacing may look really sparce to start with..but it is counted for mature trees so youngsters would have some growing to do first...
There is possibility to plant closer spacing too and fit in more varieties..but that takes more managing and you need to be 'on the ball' with the pruning and training.
Generally 1 espalier tree would not have any difficulty filling 12-15 ft space..it may take several years but it is far better to have plenty of room than not enought. Tight spacing will attract pest and disease problems.

[simmo116]

thanx for the info goodlife. will start doing my reserch. lol. they are a bit funny on my allotment with planting fruit trees (dont want them going rampant and all) so have sort of convinced them on the espalier idear.
thanx again off to put the kettle on

[Russell]

My apologies for dragging up a thread from the second page, but in choosing apple varieties for training it is very helpful to have only sorts that spur up freely and are not too vigorous.
Most pears are quite docile but apples vary enormously.
I have a trained Bramley but I would not recommend anyone else to try it, it drives me mad. I have not tried a Worcester nor would I care to.
Varieties that I have found amenable to training are James Grieve, George Cave, Laxtons Superb, Brownlees' Russet, Late Orange (with a struggle). I'm currently trying Fiesta, Spartan, Orleans Reinette and Ribston but it is too soon to give an opinion, need several years experience.
In the early years you may want to fill up the gaps with veggies. Be careful that they do not conflict with any apple tree spraying you might do. Alternatively you could fill up with extra apple trees and in five or six years dig out alternate trees: if you are careful they can be transplanted.
I presume you are buying maiden apple trees, pre-trained espaliers are budget busters.