Trained Fruit

July through August is the time to summer prune fruit trees. Whilst winter pruning is about stimulating growth, summer pruning is about surpassing vegetative growth and encouraging fruit production. It also helps the fruit ripen, and gives you an opportunity to remove any damaged fruits, and fruits too small to ripen. 

On free standing trees this practice is often used to encourage fruiting spurs to form. This is done by reducing stems, stopping the tree concentrating all its energies in the vertical growth. 

On trained fruit trees it's about shape and form as well as fruit production. The best vegetive growth comes from vertical growth, but the best fruit production comes from horizontal growth. 

The art of training fruit trees is not a new thing. But it seems to me, with the advent of modern postage stamp gardens, it's time for this method to come into its own.  

(Before)

This pictured tree will hopefully become a tiered espalier, producing tiers of fruiting stems, the full height of the trellis used to train it upon. The end product produces a living wall of fruit, in mo more than the width of a few inches. It's also highly decorative. 

This is simply cutting back any new growth back to four leaves, at the same time removing any dead stems and damaged or small fruits. (Hopefully the before and after pictures illustrate the process better than the description given!) 

(After)

The single stem, or leader, you see in the pictures will eventually become the second tiered espalier. This is loosely tied onto stretched wires, and allowed to grow upwards. 

When both stems are long enough, and still pliable they are encouraged to grow horizontally by tying onto the stretched wires using soft twine. 

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