Today the imperative is to get the trees bearing as soon as possible, preferably in their second year, and it is not the amount of fruit per tree that counts, but how much can be obtained per hectare that is important. Many orchardists are very scathing about this development, but it suits the needs of home gardeners.
It is a system of growing dwarf fruit trees as espaliers, where they can be easily covered by netting when needed. Espalier means shoulder in French, indicating the height of the fruit tree.
When the branches are bent to grow horizontally, the sap flow is slowed so that each bud gets its share of nutrients, rather than the sap racing up a vertical branch to feed the top growth. This means that an espaliered tree will utilise the nutrients available to produce flowers and fruit, rather than just more vegetation. Remember upright branches grow leaves, sideways branches grow fruit.
This system firstly depends on growing small trees on wires. All you need is a sense of adventure and the willingness to try, and of course, the trait that identifies the true gardener – patience. After all, what’s another year but four seasons in the garden?
Utilise dwarfing root stocks that reduce tree size by up to 50% without dwarfing fruit size. Trees can be spaced just two to three metres apart, and pruned, thinned, netted and picked at two metres high. Fruiting is early (two years) and yields are 10-80% higher per square metre.
The infrastructure can be a trellis, wall or fence, which assists root anchorage. A trellis with posts at two metre intervals and two metres tall is ideal.
You can use hardwood, steel picket-type stakes, old galvanised pipes and for the horizontals use wire or wood.
This system is very flexible; each tree and each variety has its own vigour. In time the varieties may grow into each other. You just have to watch and observe. If you’re a bit of a shorty, you may prefer to put the bottom wire at 60cm and the top wire at 1.5m. If you are really tall, you might go for 1.1m and 2m. I find 2-3m apart is about the optimum for dwarf trees. If you wanted to use non-dwarfing trees on vigorous understocks, the distance apart and height would have to be much greater to compensate for the greater growth habit of much larger trees.
Why not have three rows of five trees each? Each row can represent different ripening times. The first row is of trees ripening in January and February, the second row is mid-season varieties and the third row is for the late ones. For a family, 6 small trees give 6 months of fresh fruit in an area of a regular sized tree! If you keep equal numbers in each row and plant according to ripening, you will only have to buy one net. When you have picked the earlies, move the net on to the mid-season and finally on to the late ones. Our nets are 10 years old and should last a good while yet.
Also, this system lends itself perfectly to drip irrigation. Even in the most arid areas you shouldn’t suffer from lack of water. Along the bottom wire 12mm black polypipe is hooked on and a dripper inserted just above each tree. I find the absolute minimum dripper, say one litre per hour, is quite adequate. With an efficient modern filter you can even use grey water and an absolute minimum of pressure is required. Pipes and water lines are off the ground away from mowers and whipper snippers. As the trees grow, the original dripper can be blocked up and two drippers inserted about 30cm away on either side of the main trunk.
Some fruit trees prefer fan training – with branches trained at a 45° angle from the trunk. Train trees against a wall, fence or a latticed frame. Different fruit trees bear flowers and fruit on growth of differing ages. Check what sort of wood your fruit is borne on in our book, The Australian Fruit and Vegetable Garden, and prune accordingly.
To train on a wall, use masonry plugs and wires about 30cm apart. To train on a wooden frame or fence, cup hooks can by screwed in where desired.
Netting for bird protection or shade cloth for frost protection can be attached at the top of the wall or frame.
1) Prune your young tree by shortening the side shoots and removing the central stem.
2) Prune out vertical growth and tie down side shoots.
3) Eventually your fan trained tree should look like this.
Espalier explained
1) The whole structure should be firm. Wires are stretched between the uprights to approximately 90cm and 180cm in height.
The little trees are planted in the middle of the posts and cut off below the bottom wire. In the first year these little trees with suitable attention (that is, no competition from weeds and grasses, no errant whipper snippers; adequate mulch, fertiliser and water, but not too much), should put out some good growth like this.
All growth except the top strongest shoots is cut away and these are tied down to the bottom of the wire.
2) At the end of year two things should be a bit like this.
3) The tips are tied down and all growth cut away except the one upright that will grow up to the top wire.
4) In subsequent years the process is repeated: the tips are tied down and the upright growth cut away.
5) When fruit starts to mature, it is easy to cut away the young, upright growth on the top row and cover with a net.