Winter pruning of cordon apples and pears 

Thank you :)

Thank you :)

I'm glad you found it useful :) The most important pruning for fruit development is carried out in late summer - I have a video on that too: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VpKHRcNasS0.html. The summer pruning looks quite drastic - almost all of the new growth needs to be removed - but it is the secret to really productive cordons and fortunately is a very simple task. In another video I show the benefits of summer pruning and the amount of productive fruiting wood that it can produce: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hCRHZZDkqR0.html.

Thanks! :)

If measuring horizontally, between planting holes, mine are spaced around 90cm. As they are angled at 45 degrees that makes the gap between the parallel stems around 64cm. Planted in a similar manner, you could fit four trees with good spacing in your 4m x 1m bed. That leaves wasted space in the two corners. One is easy to fill out with branches, the other less so as suitable growth is less likely on the underside of the main stem. If you want more varieties you could plant them vertically. Then you could fit six or seven in that space; you could have as little as 60cm between stems so long as you were strict with summer pruning. Vertical cordons are not quite so well behaved - laying down the stem helps control vigour and allows better development of growth along the whole stem. Vertical stems tend to have more growth towards the top. It could be done though, especially if you cut the leader back once or twice to force bud break lower down. A more dwarfing rootstock would help; indeed, selecting the right rootstock for your soil conditions would be quite important. You might also find some useful ideas from the world of commercial high density orchards that use variations on the spindle.

@@jonnyskitchengarden thanks Jonny

As the tiers of the espaliers are horizontal, new growth tends to have a very vertical habit, especially on the top tier. As you have noted, this wood is not very productive - it is all about vegetative growth. In general, vertical wood is not helpful for any fruiting tree, and overly vigorous shoots are likely to be much less productive than weaker and/or more horizontal growth. If summer pruning is neglected, the vertical shoots can get out of hand. If this sort of wood is pruned in winter, it encourages further vegetative growth, which needs to be dealt with the following summer; if left, there will be an abundance of unproductive vertical shoots. It sounds as though it has been neglected for a few seasons. However, you can readily bring them back into line over the course of a couple of seasons with the right combination of summer and winter pruning. I think I would tackle the structural work in winter as it is much easier to see what is going on, cutting the vertical growth hard back. You don't want anything beyond 18 inches of the top tier, and personally I would cut back so that no more than 12 inches remains - perhaps less, where possible. Remove all of the thick vertical growth; you can leave some of the weaker shoots if they are well placed and carry fruit buds. Cut back the overly vigorous vertical shoots either to a bud or weaker side shoot near the base, or remove completely if the shoot is not needed at all. Unfortunately, these cuts will encourage an explosion of whippy growth next season. This must be dealt with in late summer, cutting all of the new growth back to just one bud past the basal cluster (the group of tightly packed buds/leaves at the base of the shoot) - you will remove all but an inch or so of the new shoots. In the next winter, you can revisit the structure, thinning where there is overcrowding. The following summer you should be back to the normal pruning regime; just bear in mind that with espaliers it is the summer pruning that is most critical (I have a video on that here too). During summer pruning almost all of the new growth needs to be removed; this encourages the formation of fruit buds. Such renovation can look pretty savage, but after a couple of seasons the trees should be back to a neat and tidy form and be productive once again. You can then focus on the more gradual removal of old and unproductive wood in favour of younger fruit bearing wood.

@@jonnyskitchengarden Wow thank you so much for your comprehensive reply, I'm certainly going to tackle them over a couple of seasons, I'm starting this week with all the new growth, I have confidence now to tackle it, much appreciated

Ideally, the limbs on the top tier of an espalier would be developed at an angle of around 45 degrees, and only laid down at the end of the season after they have made good progress. If you lay them down straight away progress will be slow. I don't know if you can raise them at all at this point - it depends how thick and stiff the branches are. If it's not really moving, I would prune them back a bit, to an upward facing bud, and allow this to grow at an angle before tying down. Louise Bonne is a wonderful pear. I would not rely on it being partially self-fertile; sources vary on that point and I'm not sure how successful it would be. If there are pears in the vicinity they may well help and I think Conference should be suitable for cross-pollination, so hopefully you'll be ok. I feed my fruit trees very little. In general, I would recommend a good mulch with organic matter - either compost or manure - each year and that should suffice. It does depend on your soil conditions, of course, and the rootstocks. I use horse compost but only every few years, because too much feed results in excessive vegetative growth.

@@jonnyskitchengarden Hi Jonny, Thanks very much for coming back to me so quickly. I have some movement in those upper branches, so will do as you suggest and leave them as is to see if they grow on more otherwise I will prune back a little. Regarding the Louis Bonne, I’m just wondering if I should take the risk of it not pollinating at all, but hopefully the unproductive Conference will be enough. Otherwise I may look for something else. Thanks very much again. All best wishes Tim

If I thought it might get pollinated I think I would risk it, as it is such a lovely pear :)

You might still want to shorten the branches a bit - pruning in the winter can stimulate growth and shortening the limbs can encourage better development of the sub-laterals that will later develop into fruiting spurs.

@@jonnyskitchengarden Great! Thanks so much.

Thanks - they are just in my garden :) The ends of your main branches could be pruned either in summer or winter, but I would suggest summer is best; as a general rule, pruning in winter encourages vegetative growth, something you no longer want on the horizontals when they have reached their final length. I would cut extension growth to just one bud/leaf in late summer. As for the main stem, this can be pruned in winter. Once you have identified suitable buds that could form well placed horizontals, it can sometimes be helpful to cut several buds above them to start with; the upper buds compete to become the new leader, often developing narrow angles with the trunk, which are not so good for horizontal limbs - those further down typically develop at better angles. The excess branches can be pruned out in the summer, leaving only those chosen to form the new horizontals (along with one vertical if you need to develop further tiers). In at least the first season, tie the new branches in at around 45 degrees; once they have put on a reasonable amount of growth, they can be laid down towards the horizontal, but they will grow slowly if tied in horizontally from the beginning. Hope that helps, but if you have any other questions I am happy to try to answer them :)

Hi Jonny, Hope you are well and thanks so much for your very quick and informative reply. You must have so many questions from other people here, so I am very appreciative of your time. Your explanation here has been great and I just wanted to know how much I could prune the branch ends on the espalliers? If they haven’t yet reached my desired length, should I just prune to, say, the last upward facing bud or two, or do I prune back further to encourage more lateral growth? And then once they have reached their final length, just prune back to that length every year to maintain? On a separate note, I wanted to plant an espalier pear (ideally a single-tier stepover) and wondered if you might recommend a fairly hardy (as disease-resistant as possible) variety of dessert pear that would happily grow in a sunny spot in my South-facing London garden? There are plenty of pear trees around here, so I am assuming pollination wouldn’t be an issue? And I was thinking of just getting a maiden tree that I could start to train on planting, as the partially trained forms seem quite expensive, but any suggestions would be much appreciated whenever you have time to respond. Thanks very much again for all your advice. Best wishes Tim

Until they have reached their desired length it is usual to shorten the extension growth (i.e. the new growth from this season) by around 1/3 in winter. This will help to encourage stronger regrowth as well as encourage buds along these branches to break. Once they have reached their full length, prune further growth to just one bud each summer. Regarding pear varieties, I always chose older varieties as I find them more interesting and look for fine flavoured dessert fruits, so I may have quite different criteria to yours. Hardiness should not be a problem in a south facing London garden. If you want the best disease resistance you may need to look for a more recent variety but it is not something I particularly worry about and I'm not sure what I could recommend in that regard. Conference is a common choice because it is hardly, heavy and regular cropping, with good disease resistance; but it would never find a place in my garden because the fruit is inferior and it is simply an uninteresting variety to me. So it all depends on what you are looking for. I always get an excellent crop from Louise Bonne. It is one of the earlier ones to ripen in my collection and like most of the earlier apples and pears the fruit does not store well but in its season it has a succulent texture and wonderful flavour. Beurre Hardy is well know for its fine perfumed flavour. Duchess d'angouleme is also very fine. It produces fewer fruit but they are enormous - the largest pears I have ever seen - with a buttery texture and delicious flavour. Of course, the common Doyenne du Comice is a fine dessert pear, but as it is readily available in season, you might wish to pick something a little different. Starting with a maiden is a good idea, not only for the cost but also because partially trained trees have often been butchered. I would recommend buying from a specialist fruit nursery - you will have a wider range of varieties and rootstocks to choose from and are more likely to get a decent tree in my opinion. I have used Keepers Nursery many times and have had some fantastic specimens from them.

@@jonnyskitchengarden Hi Jonny, Many thanks again for your efficiency and generous reply. I will endeavour to do what you advise, so very much appreciated as I am still in the learning phase. Just one quick question, if I may, with regards to the pruning of the espalier leaders: if you are advising me to prune back to one bud every summer, after it has reached its final optimum length, then would I not prune back further if it has grown beyind this? If the horizontals grow, say, to a foot or so past the length I want (I understand it’s not an exact science), then would I not be pruning back by more than one bud? Apologies for my confusion. As for pear varieties I do very much agree with what you say and so I will look out for the varieties you mention, as I would much rather have a more interesting. If I was intending to grow a one-tier stepover, then what might be the best rootstock? I believe that the dwarf rootstocks like M9 and M27 for example just don’t have the vigour to do much, but I may be wrong. I certainly know of Keepers, as they supplied me with a wonderful Greensleeve half-standard apple that has borne a plentiful supply of fruit over the last five years. Thanks very much again. All best wishes Tim

Sorry that wasn't clear, but when I said prune to one bud, it is from the point where the new growth starts rather than from the end :) I don't like the very dwarfing stocks and the ones you mention are for apples. I would think Quince A or Pyrodwarf for a good size espalier. It depends on your soil conditions and to a lesser degree on the vigour of the scion variety. The nursery can probably give you good advice for whatever variety you chose. If in doubt, I always lean towards the more vigorous stock - you can handle excess vigour with pruning but there isn't much that can be done for weak growth.