I have a limited area of ground available for cultivation. I tossed around several ideas of what I could do.......less than an acre was too small for any real livestock alternative that was even remotely attractive to me.....but an orchard on the dwarfing rootstock and grown on wires like grapes seemed not only possible but very interesting and challenging. So I am in my 2nd year from initial planting. My first trees are tied on the wire....I'm running 4 wires on my trellis and trees are spaced every 3 feet. I am anxious to see how this year goes.....should be getting into the first years of production now. Just curious as to who eles is growing their apples on wires and how you set yours up, stumbling blocks, lessons learned, etc.

Have you used this spacing 'calculator'? http://www.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/clements/appletreespacing.htm Scott

Trellis raising party - I am planting 960 trees on a mile of five-wire trellis from from April 19th through early May 2010. The block will consist of 10 varieties of apples and is designed for organic management. Interested persons may come to observe and help. I can't pay more people than our existing core crew of six, but we can probably feed and house a couple of folks who have the apple bug. So if you're considering a large planting, come and see our mistakes so you don't have to make them You can contact me using russell at parkhillorchard.com

For those of you working on a trellis and planning to manage organcially, what is your plan for fertility management and disease management. Trellising is attractive to me because you can get a lot of varieties in a small space, but I have held off trying it due to nutrition and disease concerns.

We have some trees on trellises (4 rows x 100 metres long), using M27, M9, M26 and Ottawa 3 rootstocks. We find that a narrow two-dimensional hedge (ie. wall) is actually a much better spray target than a series of conical, central leader or vase-shaped trees. So long as the hedge is kept narrow to allow adequate circulation of air, penetration of sunlight and penetration of fungicide sprays, we have no major disease or fruit quality problems. As far as nutrition is concerned, we find lots of compost will fix anything.

There are three main design items for me. Air, air and air. The understory row, strip or whatever is an interesting problem to work with. Right now we are looking at 18 inch wide thick pea stone down the center and two exterior strips to be cultivated with a shallow pass of the troybilt tiller several times a year. The vertical axe training system uses five wires and allows the irrigation to be tied above ground on the bottom wire. In design, I noticed that having the drip tube up off the ground opens up a lot of options. The long, even canvas of foliage combined with a well calibrated sprayer should give remarkably efficient coverage. Labor? One can only imagine the incredible savings in time and effort, especially in hand thinning, compared to big central leader trees. Trellis systems are more friendly to artificial pollination which could potentially make organic thinning a bit less of a gamble.

I planted an orchard on the trellis system this year, trying to grow my M26 in espalier form,  my problem is that on some of the trees don't have two laterals, in theory once the whip has been cut at  3 buds, I should end up with two laterals and a new leader.  Any ideas on how to encourage my extra lateral to grow. 

At present I'm wraping tree stems also putting down blood meal, so that my orchard doesn't become an open buffet to rabbits.

To Michelle and Chris would you put down your compost now (november) or in the spring for nutrition ?  I have plenty of well rotted pig manure.

    

We generally put out compost in the autumn (rather than spring) to allow the post harvest root flush to get some of the nutrients before the trees shut down for winter. We have lots of biological activity over winter (it has never snowed here), so our environment is very different to yours - maybe someone from North America could offer better advice than us for your situation.

With regards to the tree training, we find a modified espalier style works well.  We started out doing a rigid espalier design, pulling limbs down to the horizontal opposite one another, and stapling them in place to a branch coming from the adjacent tree. A year or two later, the staple was cut out so the trees did not overlap. As you can imagine, this resulted in a lot of unproductive upright growth from the horizontal limbs, which had to be removed every year. We have found that it is better to pull limbs down below the horizontal, and not to shorten them unless they reach the ground. This seems to be resulting in less upright growth, more fruit and better return bloom. We have a row of Gala on M26 at 1.25 metre tree spacing, which seems about right for our soil and climate.

If you haven't got laterals where you need them, you have a couple of options - one would be to score the bark above a bud to trick it into believing it is now the top bud on the tree and start to grow. Another would be to bend down a limb below horizontal no matter from what height it appears from the trunk - the trees won't look as neat, but they will still be productive. A third option (and our preferred one, so long as the trees are young and vigorous) is to cut the tree back in winter a few buds above the graft, and re-grow the tree. Tie down to below horizontal those feathers pointing along the tree line once they are long enough to reach about halfway to the adjacent tree. (Flattening these branches too early means they won't fill the space between the trees). Remove strong feathers pointing at right angles to the tree line. Will try to do a sketch, scan it and post here for clarification. 

As I read what every one is doing here I struggle with the idea that something I have to hold up or can't climb , is a tree  

Hello David,  I started a batch of EM this year, took me quiet a while to get the right PH.  Would you mind sharing your receipe with me for the quantities of neem oil liquid fish and the EM.  Am I correct in thinking that you will be spraying the whole orchard floor or just under the trees.

Thank you Ashley.

Hello Michelle and Chris,  I would very much appricate your time if you could draw a sketch.  You mentioned to cut the tree back to a few buds above the graft, would that be the root stock graft ?  I planted all the trees this May28th we had a very hot and dry summer, most of the trees were two year old whips.  Would that still be in your time frame for cutting back. ?  We have already had a few inches of snow.  Would I still be able to cut the trees back or would you suggest in the spring ?

Thank you Ashley.

Ashley,

I see you are putting down blood meal in fall in Canada. If you are putting it within tree dripline you may keep the trees in growth mode and possibly get more winter damage. Although the high nitrogen may aid in leaf decompostition, you may want to in future wait until the trees are absolutely in dormancy. The blood meal has a tendency to attract skunks and other big furries, especially in fall when food is scarce. One year I had a bunch of trees completely unearthed because I used fertilizer in the hole that contained bone meal, and the same thing is possible with blood products. I have stuck hardwood trimmings in a circle around newly planted trees like a mini colonial fort and it seemed to work, the bunnies eat these and are physically distanced from the apple.

Ashley