Espaliered Fruit Trees
Have you guys heard of the espalier method of growing fruit trees? See this pear tree above, isn’t that awesome! It’s the art of training dwarf fruit trees against a wall or flat structure. Think of how easy harvesting from these would be! And the pruning is supposed to make fruit production even better because the sun is able to get to all branches of the tree.
Here’s a trained apple tree. I LOVE this idea! I wish I had a South or West facing sunny spot on my house where I could plant something like this, but the only good sunny spot I have is in the goat’s yard. And I’m sure it wouldn’t last long with them around! I would like to try this method somewhere on our land though. I’ll have to think about that. The cool thing about dwarf trees is that they don’t take up much room, so even if you have a very small yard you could still plant one or two of these guys.
I found a really good post with lots of information and a detailed “How-To” on growing espalier fruit trees. Check it out!
The downside… it could take 7 or 8 years to train a tree like this!! On second thought, I’m not so sure I have the patience to try this!
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brilliant!! It is really beautiful too.
I wonder if you could do the same thing with a wire structure of some sort. Neat idea! Our trees have gotten so large that picking them requires a ladder. I’m scared of heights…yes the ladder is considered a height
I think this would work for us chickens who like our feet on the ground.
People use this method all the time here in Germany for their fruit trees, especially apples. But they usually just have a few posts and wire stretched from post to post. I guess the wire lines are spaced about 1.5-2 feet apart. They just attach the tree to that as needed for support. It’s a fantastic idea in places where you don’t want to take up so much space but still want lots of fruit.
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