Kudzu: Control of vegetative growth is best achieved by pruning in late summer, after terminal buds have set. You could prune now, but the likely result would be multiple new shoots at the pruning site over the course of the growing season. Late summer pruning may not stop the upward growth of the trunk, but it will certainly slow it. If the trunk beneath is quince, the vigorous shoot above it is certainly quince also. It is a little unusual to hear of a tree grafted in this particular fashion, but there is certainly nothing wrong with it. Did you place the grafts yourself? You might also consider heading back the vertical shoots from your fruiting branches at the same time, to encourage their development as fruiting wood, although tying them down should slow their growth. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

You can also notch the bark on the outside of your most central latent bud- that is notch it on the side the branch is heading so growing tips can't send hormones that stop latent buds from becoming active. A half inch wide (not deep!) nick with a hacksaw through green tissue to white wood should work, although it may be too late this year to get a response. It's supposed to be done at about the point of flowering so there may well still be time. The hormones from the opposite branches buds won't reach the dormant bud because the stream will head straight down when it reaches the trunk. Do not notch the trunk side! What rootstock is your tree on. If you don't know you may be screwed- nurseries often sell espalier's on excessively vigorous rootstocks.

1. "Growing Fruit" is a consise book which covers every aspect of fruit-growing including espalier, fan, and stepover pruning methods. It is a good place to start. It would be good if there were a more thorough book but I have not found one that was in-print. There are also many older out-of-print books which have a great deal of information in them; I don't recall the titles now however. 2. Sounds good to me. 3. If you are buying 50+ stocks, Williamette is a good source. For scionwood I keep a suppliers list, here it is: Richard Fahey Catholic Homesteading Movement Oxford, NY 13830 WSU NSRP5 program Nick Botner Lon Rombough Fedco http://www.fedcoseeds.com/forms/ft29scionOSreal.pdf Joyce Neighbors, Carlos Manning 681 Maplewood Rd. Lester, WV 25865 jneighbr (at) internetpro.net Tim Strickland, stricklt at gvsu.edu Tower Hill, http://www.towerhillbg.org/thwebscion.html Maple Valley, http://www.maplevalleyorchards.com/Pages/ScionWood.aspx Richard Fahey is my default source, he has a good list and very good quality and service. Lon is also very good but he has only a couple apples. Joyce has many older southern varieties. Fedco will surely be good but I never ordered from them (or the others). Well I tried to order from NSRP5 once but they were not offering much at all. Nick has the most varieties; I have heard the statistic that 10-20% of his varieties are mis-labeled, but he is the only source for many varieties and I have gotten many true-to-type scions from him. Scott

I can't help with your desire for more branching, but as to the better crop on new growth and how much trimming to be done... it will depend on the variety that you have. With some the breba may be superior, and vice versa. For varieties fruiting on old wood you wouldn't want to trim as severely I wouldn't think.