Espalier pruning is advanced pruning and very rewarding. When I lived in Europe, one of the pleasures of traveling was to see the trees trained up the sides of buildings...sigh...um....ahem. Water sprouts are, technically, latent buds - buds below the surface of the bark. It is easier to rub off the buds you don't want as branches as they break than letting them grow 2 feet then pruning. You'll get used to it. An excellent book that has instructions and lots of fun how-tos as well is Sears Step - by - Step Gardening Techniques Illustrated Dan

We're not soft, John. As I think you've encountered :-) We can kick it around with the "big boys". Your comment comes across as rude and belittling, and I am sure you're not meaning that. You can call it BS if you want, but perhaps are more erudite adjective might be "passe"? Rhizo, I asked Tom Shea at UCR Extension this very question during my class, as I have an unknown, very, very interesting lemon tree that tends to send up wild and crazy water shoots, especially now that I have rescued it. He told me they will turn into branches, and depending upon where they are, if they complement the canopy (i.e., aren't going to crowd existing branches, cross another branch, etc.), it's perfectly fine to leave them. I have left mine on a couple of trees (lemon, Page mandarin and my Cara Cara), and so far, I don't see that they appear weaker at the trunk union than other branches. The data you provided is 4 years old. Perhaps some of the philosophy has changed? I will double check with Tom and some of my current literature. Patty S.

More likely than not your neighbor cannot legally discharge that water in such a way that it affects your property. I would talk to them about it politely, and if that fails your local municipal zoning authority would probably be the next place you'd want to go to address what is in all likelihood an illegal drainage setup.

I've done some more research since posting. if you're just starting out you can prune them the same as muscadines on a single wire with two cordons and spurs. there are a number of people I've spoken to that have had good success that way. it is probably not the best for a commercial venture but for the home garden it will apparently provide gallons of kiwi. Do you have a male planted nearby? I planted a pair (male and female) in the same hole the other day on a new trellis i started, we have some pollination issues that limit fruit set.