So, is there a consensus on this? I assume it has as much to do with rootstock as anything. I have roughly 32 feet of space that I'd like to do an espalier apple "fence" (about 6 feet high), and I'm trying to figure out if I should go with 4, 5 or dare I say 6 trees. My question I guess is that if I go with different varieties (which for me would be the reason for going with more trees) is that I'm not likely to get the same rootstock for them (based on a quick survey of varieties I'm interested in at the online nurseries), so will it mess things up if I have a couple of semi-dwarf trees mixed in with dwarf varieties and only 5 or 6 feet of spacing? I suspect that will just create a lot of work for me. Am I correct in assuming the easiest thing would be to go with 8 foot spacing and just get varieties that I can get on a dwarfing rootstock?

Johndoug: Are these two photos of the same tree? The photo on top looks like a different tree than than the one on the bottom. How many branches does this tree have? Two? Or more? Closeups are nice, but one overall photo of the entire tree would also be helpful. I won't ask why you planted a tree trained as an espalier as a stand-alone tree, since you have apparently already realized this was a bad idea. But was this tree sold as a multi-graft, with two or more varieties grafted to it? As deninnmi has observed, the branches in your photos appear to have been individually budded to the understock. If you were to cut back too close, you may lose the grafted varieties entirely, and the tree would essentially become a rootstock. In a case like this, I would prune only when the tree is fully dormant, to encourage vigorous new spring growth, then be prepared to spread the new branches so they do not all go fully vertical as in the photo provided by Scottsmith. You don't want the branches drooping either, and the ideal angle for fruiting branches of an apple tree is from 45 to 75 degrees. The cuts you propose to make are awfully close to the point where the branches were originally budded, and I would leave at least several inches more away from the trunk. If you are ever able to get the tree into a reasonable imitation of a stand-alone shape, you will want to follow with summer pruning to hold down vigor and encourage fruiting sites. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

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 suggest leaving the more vertical shoots on the top branches for now and remove them from the lower branches. Why is because those top tiers will try to grow faster and shade out the lower branches and they'll never keep up if you go all horizontal everywhere. After the lower branches get some growth you can then start letting top go to "keep up" with the lower and prune the vertical growth out. This isn't from tried and true, this is from tried and failure. Give me a few years to see if it's tried and true but judging from the old ones (not really failures) vs the new the top will always want to outgrow the bottom and if it's allowed to start out like that the bottom kind of gives up. Next year don't wait for some of that. Anything coming off the main trunk should be rubbed out as soon as you see it and it's just a bud. Those really long ones can be nipped when you think they're getting long enough for your tastes, just pinch the end off.