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Can I slightly rephrase one of the questions, has anyone tried growing cordon apple trees? Any thoughts?
Quote from: davholla on January 21, 2019, 13:37:07Can I slightly rephrase one of the questions, has anyone tried growing cordon apple trees? Any thoughts?Cordons are probably the most-used method for new (spur bearing) trees in small suburban gardens - they are absolutely fine, reliably produce a maximum of apples from a minimum of space and work, & also cast less shade than anything except stepovers (& maybe very narrow pyramids).For me the big advantage is that you can let the ones you like get a bit wider and prune the mediocrities to a few fruit a year (or 'demote' them by moving them to less premium positions - but some excellent apples need more time so it's better to keep them going at 'tickover' eg. D'arcy Spice does deserve its high reputation but mine took 10 years to really live up to it).Or are you talking about 'supercolumns/supercordons'? They restrict you even more than they are, because there are so few varieties, and last time I looked none of them would get into my top 40.Cheers.
I'm not 100% sure about this but as far as I can tell from my research super columns simply seem to be standard varieties grafted onto an M27 rootstock and pruned to produce one strong central columns without any other framework.
Quote from: Beersmith on January 22, 2019, 22:45:31I'm not 100% sure about this but as far as I can tell from my research super columns simply seem to be standard varieties grafted onto an M27 rootstock and pruned to produce one strong central columns without any other framework. Basically M27 needs everything 'just so' to produce the yields trumpeted, and even a partial shortfall might result in biennial bearing - apparently, (I've always used M26 for cordons).
Like yourself there are many very capable gardeners on here who would be fully capable of providing the extra bit of care and attention needed by an M27. However, Mr Davholla seems a little inexperienced and perhaps lacking in confidence. (No criticism intended). So my advice was perhaps not the best.