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dwarf fruit trees
rosemummy
Posts: 2,010
in Fruit & veg
I have 3 new fruit trees in very large pots which i ummed and aahed and have now decided that i really want them trained as espaliers, I have someone coming to fix up supports and wire next week, so..should i start to tie in now? should I chop off the top of the main trunk or do that in summer? they are all around 1.5 metre tall and I don't want them much taller, should I just have 2 horizontal wires and train branches to those? when should I remove unwanted side branches? am a bit out of my depth here..! any advice v welcome thankyou in advance
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oh gosh verdun, thankyou, no idea, thought all fruit trees were spurring!! plum is victoria, cherry stella, apple braeburn ( i do have a red delicious as a cordon,though I've been reaaly bad at supporting it, this will be it's 3rd year and I'm trying to straighten it, it's a kind of lazy 'c' at the moment!!!
thanks verdun, gosh i didn't know cherries and plums had to be fans, that's fine, when should i prune out branches i don't want? no, the red delicious isn't really at 45 degrees, i bought it as a patio cordon, the illustration was of a straight trunk... would it be too late to take out and repot at that angle? thanks so much for taking the time to adfvise me, i really appreciate it ( unfortunately we're not heading southwest this year or we'd come to visit with some of our speciality home mad e choc chip cookies!...... maybe next...!!)
red delicious is 2 years old, i did empty top third of compost earlier this year and add fresh..i'll go and have a look at it when I get chance,last year was 1st year we haven't been to Cornwall for years, in my 20's i literally went down once a month through spring and summer, just both kids are so travel sick (me too, even worse!) we decided to holiday bit less of a drive away, I'm pining for it though... I did know that plums and cherries have to be pruned really in summer so shall I take off branches I don't want in the fan this summer?
saw lots of dwarf fruit trees at Chatsworth yesterday, they had lots just grown as uprights with side branches all looked like they were kept short, they were planted close together( maybe 2 feet apart) I think this looks the easiest option for us so we'll see how they do, the espaliers look lovely but I'm not confident I can get it right
Only one of my cherry trees has flowered ( I picked the flowers off ) should I worry? I've been spraying with seaweed once a week, even my 2 year old 'patio' aplle hasn't flowered...