In many gardens these days there is no room for large apple trees with a standard trunk and a wide crown. Even in a small garden, you don't have to miss out on harvesting sweet apples if you train the apple trees into espaliers.
How do I grow an apple tree as a trellis?
To grow an apple tree as a trellis, you need regular pruning, a sunny location at least 50 cm from the wall and a suitable variety such as Freedom, Jakob Fischer, Piros or Rebella. Attach the branches to horizontal wires with loose cords.
Strict upbringing shapes the apple tree
The espalier shape does not grow automatically, even with modern cultivated varieties of apple trees. Rather, very regular and targeted pruning is necessary to allow an apple tree to grow in the form of a trellis. The reward for this is not only a tree with special visual appeal in a geometric shape, but also a particularly rich and sweet apple harvest.
Planning and preparation for a trellis of apple trees
As with almost all planting activities in the garden, the creation of an apple espalier should be planned carefully. The growth power of the espalier trees should not be underestimated. Specifically, this means that apple trees, as shallow-rooted trees, should not be too close to a house wall in order to develop optimally. Nevertheless, proximity to a sunlit wall promises additional sweetness for the expected harvest. A distance of at least half a meter has proven to be optimal, which also gives the tree enough space to develop.
Wires or wood
In the past, espalier trees were usually trained along a prefabricated wooden trellis (€287.00 on Amazon), but today constructions made of metal rods and stretched wire are usually visually more attractive and easier to set up. To do this, a fence post is attached to the ground next to the tree trunks, from which the horizontal wires are stretched to the next post. It is important that the branches of the apple trees should not be attached to the cross wires with a tight wire, but rather with loose raffia cords. Otherwise, the wires can grow into the thicker branches, which can affect the sap distribution in the branch.
Suitable varieties for a trellis
Commercially available varieties such as: are particularly suitable for creating an apple espalier.
- Freedom
- Jakob Fischer
- Piros
- Rebella
These robust apple varieties are usually grafted onto a weakly growing M9 rootstock, whose root and trunk growth remains within limits.
Tips & Tricks
A fruit trellis is particularly attractive when you alternate apple and pear trees, for example. In addition, several apple trees of different varieties in a row not only guarantee a delayed harvest, but also improved pollination performance.
