Wondering about this for either sides of my front yard.. sort of low hedge thingy. Beats a box hedge and you get fruit!
I can see apples on one side and plums on the other. Now to do some homework :)

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=598

Happy Potter said:

Wondering about this for either sides of my front yard.. sort of low hedge thingy. Beats a box hedge and you get fruit!
I can see apples on one side and plums on the other. Now to do some homework :)

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=598

Not hard to do. Apples are great subjects for espalier. Not all the pears do so well espaliered though. Plums would make as pears would, a rather thorny step over.

roughbarked said:

Happy Potter said:

Wondering about this for either sides of my front yard.. sort of low hedge thingy. Beats a box hedge and you get fruit!
I can see apples on one side and plums on the other. Now to do some homework :)

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=598

Not hard to do. Apples are great subjects for espalier. Not all the pears do so well espaliered though. Plums would make as pears would, a rather thorny step over.

Note from the link: *It is necessary to start training on very young trees. Choose a maiden whip that is supple and can be bent over. A maiden whip is a one-year-old tree with either no side branches or only sparsely branched. The main stem must not have been pruned to encourage branching.

Make sure that the selected cultivar is grafted onto a M27 rootstock. Although M9 and M26 rootstocks are suitable for conventional cordon training, they would be too vigorous for stepover training.

When selecting a cultivar, bear in mind that most apples are not self-pollinating and you may need to plant two different cultivars unless a suitable pollination tree is growing near by.*

ie: most apples are grafted onto Granny Smith seedlings. You need to know a nursery that guarantees that they use these rootstocks.

Start training young? This needs to happen from the moment the bud that has been grafted on, shoots for the first time. You simply cannot buy a tree that can have this happen. You need to know a nurseryman who can start the tree in this fashion. OR you need to buy the tree already started.

roughbarked said:

roughbarked said:

Happy Potter said:

Wondering about this for either sides of my front yard.. sort of low hedge thingy. Beats a box hedge and you get fruit!
I can see apples on one side and plums on the other. Now to do some homework :)

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=598

Not hard to do. Apples are great subjects for espalier. Not all the pears do so well espaliered though. Plums would make as pears would, a rather thorny step over.

Note from the link: *It is necessary to start training on very young trees. Choose a maiden whip that is supple and can be bent over. A maiden whip is a one-year-old tree with either no side branches or only sparsely branched. The main stem must not have been pruned to encourage branching.

Make sure that the selected cultivar is grafted onto a M27 rootstock. Although M9 and M26 rootstocks are suitable for conventional cordon training, they would be too vigorous for stepover training.

When selecting a cultivar, bear in mind that most apples are not self-pollinating and you may need to plant two different cultivars unless a suitable pollination tree is growing near by.*

ie: most apples are grafted onto Granny Smith seedlings. You need to know a nursery that guarantees that they use these rootstocks.

Start training young? This needs to happen from the moment the bud that has been grafted on, shoots for the first time. You simply cannot buy a tree that can have this happen. You need to know a nurseryman who can start the tree in this fashion. OR you need to buy the tree already started.

ie: after this bud has healed on and the tape is cut away, the top of the young tree is removed just above the bud and the bud starts to swell and shoot. From this moment on the new branch must always be trained away from the vertical. otherwise it will never go there easily. Probably the easiest way to train this is by placing the chip bud on the rootstock upside down. this will cause the new shoot to grow downwards first, before attempting to reach for the sky.

However the first thing is to obtain the slower growing rootsock. Don’t be put off by the numbers they name such rootstock cuttings by. This merely relates to which row and which tree in that row the cuttings were taken from. Also, don’t be put off by guff about the rootstock being too vigorous. Preferably, the best rootstocks come from seedlings. Not from cuttings. Any handful of seed sown will be sufficiently individual enough to show that some seedlings from the same fruit will be less vigorous than the others and vice versa. Apple seeds are one of the easiest to notice such variations in. Which is why Johnny Appleseed is such a folklore figure.

oops I forgot the diagram

roughbarked said:

oops I forgot the diagram

That…is a good idea :)

I know such things are beyond me but was going to email or message a few of the orchard fellows and have a chat. They are well familiar with rootstocks and number for this or that depending on the situation. In the past when chatting to these blokes, I have been known to say ‘But RB said..’ lol. (not using your name)

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

oops I forgot the diagram

That…is a good idea :)

I know such things are beyond me but was going to email or message a few of the orchard fellows and have a chat. They are well familiar with rootstocks and number for this or that depending on the situation. In the past when chatting to these blokes, I have been known to say ‘But RB said..’ lol. (not using your name)

To be sure that I’m a bit out there and avant garde.. I should preface everything I say with “don’t quote me but this is my experience”

…but you explain things so well RoughBarked, even if it is based on experience…and let’s face it that’s the best teacher…

I have been unsuccessful with 3 of my apple seeds so far, they come out of the Pink Lady apple with a sprouted seed and I plant it and it grows to 4 leaf then wilts, on the verandah out of direct sunlight but plenty of indirect…is it too hot for them to strike successfully? The “ambient” temps here can reach 38C as we all know.. I thought of putting the pot in the refrigerator but that’s fussy…soooo would I be best to take a couple of seeds and hold them over until, say, April, when the weather may start cooling down?

Hijacking your thread, Anne S but it is about apples…

Dinetta said:

…but you explain things so well RoughBarked, even if it is based on experience…and let’s face it that’s the best teacher…

I have been unsuccessful with 3 of my apple seeds so far, they come out of the Pink Lady apple with a sprouted seed and I plant it and it grows to 4 leaf then wilts, on the verandah out of direct sunlight but plenty of indirect…is it too hot for them to strike successfully? The “ambient” temps here can reach 38C as we all know.. I thought of putting the pot in the refrigerator but that’s fussy…soooo would I be best to take a couple of seeds and hold them over until, say, April, when the weather may start cooling down?

Hijacking your thread, Anne S but it is about apples…

When are these seeds germinating?

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

I have been unsuccessful with 3 of my apple seeds so far, they come out of the Pink Lady apple with a sprouted seed and I plant it and it grows to 4 leaf then wilts, on the verandah out of direct sunlight but plenty of indirect…is it too hot for them to strike successfully? The “ambient” temps here can reach 38C as we all know.. I thought of putting the pot in the refrigerator but that’s fussy…soooo would I be best to take a couple of seeds and hold them over until, say, April, when the weather may start cooling down?

Hijacking your thread, Anne S but it is about apples…

When are these seeds germinating?

They are germinating inside the apple…have been since the beginning of the year…

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

I have been unsuccessful with 3 of my apple seeds so far, they come out of the Pink Lady apple with a sprouted seed and I plant it and it grows to 4 leaf then wilts, on the verandah out of direct sunlight but plenty of indirect…is it too hot for them to strike successfully? The “ambient” temps here can reach 38C as we all know.. I thought of putting the pot in the refrigerator but that’s fussy…soooo would I be best to take a couple of seeds and hold them over until, say, April, when the weather may start cooling down?

Hijacking your thread, Anne S but it is about apples…

When are these seeds germinating?

They are germinating inside the apple…have been since the beginning of the year…

?
Wrong climate.

Wrong time of the year to buy an apple.

Need I say a lot more?

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

roughbarked said:

When are these seeds germinating?

They are germinating inside the apple…have been since the beginning of the year…

?
Wrong climate.

Wrong time of the year to buy an apple.

Need I say a lot more?

What he said.

What varieties of apples grow up that way D?

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

They are germinating inside the apple…have been since the beginning of the year…

?
Wrong climate.

Wrong time of the year to buy an apple.

Need I say a lot more?

What he said.

What varieties of apples grow up that way D?

None that I know of, Happy Potter…although it is possible to grow peaches and I thought, why not apples? Not for the fruit but for the blossom…peach fruit has to be picked green and then preserved up here, the bugs get into the ripe fruit…

Fortunately we can buy apples year round…

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

roughbarked said:

?
Wrong climate.

Wrong time of the year to buy an apple.

Need I say a lot more?

What he said.

What varieties of apples grow up that way D?

None that I know of, Happy Potter…although it is possible to grow peaches and I thought, why not apples? Not for the fruit but for the blossom…peach fruit has to be picked green and then preserved up here, the bugs get into the ripe fruit…

Fortunately we can buy apples year round…

Yes. You need a good spell of cold weather for apples. However, the flowers may also go off too quickly to make it worth planting one for that purpose.

roughbarked said:

Dinetta said:

Happy Potter said:

What he said.

What varieties of apples grow up that way D?

None that I know of, Happy Potter…although it is possible to grow peaches and I thought, why not apples? Not for the fruit but for the blossom…peach fruit has to be picked green and then preserved up here, the bugs get into the ripe fruit…

Fortunately we can buy apples year round…

Yes. You need a good spell of cold weather for apples. However, the flowers may also go off too quickly to make it worth planting one for that purpose.

Thanks RoughBarked…I“ll concentrate on something else then…