Had you visited the
Potager du Roi (the King's Potager or food garden) during the heyday of the Sun King, you would have been able to see thousands of fruit trees trained into more than 44 different forms or
formes fruitières, as espalier patterns are called in French. (The term
espalier) in French refers only to two-dimensional forms usually trained against a wall.) They bore names as diverse as 'Spiral Vase,' 'Unilateral Horizontal Quadruple Cordon,' 'Vertical Counter-Espalier in Full Wind,' 'Glass-Form Palmette of Eight or More Branches,' and 'La Quintinie's Fan.' There was not one pyramidal form, but six: 'Pyramid,' 'Winged Pyramid,' 'Pyramid in Arcs,' 'Pyramid in Steps,' 'Simple Winged Pyramid,' and 'Horizonto-Vertical Pyramid.'
The incredible number and variety of fruit forms bears witness to two predominant French tendencies: the love of variety and complication, and, when it comes to plants, a compulsion to prune and train. I'll leave it up to you to infer what these compulsions might mean in the larger picture of the French personality. But, in gardening, these innately French traits combined to give us the fine art of espalier.
Many of these ancient fruit forms are rarely if ever practiced today. But nevertheless, a present-day visit to the
Potager du Roi will still allow you to see thousands of fruit trees trained into 42 different forms.
Most commercial orchards in France are trained into forms--whether three-dimensional goblets or two-dimensional palmettes or fans. The amount of pruning work this represents is mindboggling, and yet...it gets done, and these orchards earn money. Obviously, espalier is more than an art. It is also a science, and it increases orchard productivity to a point where the investment in time is worth it.
All the forms share some basic techniques for pruning and training. No matter which 'pattern' you choose, you will have to supply firm supports, in the form of a wooden or metal post, for the upright portion of the trunk. Between the upright supports, you will need to string strands of wire or airplane cable at intervals of about a foot. Keep these taut with turnbuckles. They will be used to attach the scaffold branches at the desired angles.
Especially during the first few years of training your espaliered tree, you will need to attach the trunk and branches firmly to mold them to their desired forms. Yet, you must take care not to injure the bark or strangle the growth. The best way to accomplish this is by using willow or other supple twigs as natural ties, as described in
Osier plant ties in this column (scroll down through the titles of preceding articles at the bottom of this one). These ties have the double advantage of never abrading the bark, and naturally degrading after a couple of years--perfect timing for the formation of your espalier.
Attaching your scaffold branches in the desired form should be done from one to three times during the summer, as a function of the complexity of the form. The most difficult form to create are branches which are completely horizontal. Understanding why this is the case is key to comprehending fruit tree physiology and how to manipulate it. Sap moves easily up a vertical trunk or branch, stimulating rapid
vegetative growth and elongation of the branch. That's why 'suckering' branches--shoots growing vertically off a main branch of a fruit tree are removed in even the most conventional pruning scheme. They never produce fruiting wood and suck energy away from the fruit-bearing branches.
As a branch is trained away from the vertical, the flow of sap is progressively braked. This has two effects: slowing down of vegetative (elongating) growth, and stimulation of fruit bud production. In espalier work, both of these are good effects. It's just that if you're training a branch to the horizontal, it will stop growing entirely. Therefore, you need to trick the branch by keeping the growing tip bent upward, while you continue to attach the rest of the branch to the horizontal.
Another important intervention is to rub off fruiting buds on scaffold branches which you are trying to get to elongate. Once they are trained in place, huge amounts of fruit buds will naturally form due to the braked sap.
Training and maintaining an espalier requires two different kinds of pruning: winter and summer. In winter, you make your major 'heading back' cuts, which on scaffolding branches (other than the vertical trunk) is always done just above a downward-facing bud. But it is perhaps the summer pruning--the pinching back of twigs that form along the scaffold branches--that is essential to their elongation. While winter pruning cuts stimulate growth at the bud just below the cut, summer pruning brakes growth.
You will need to develop a recognition and understanding of the different types of buds (vegetative and fruiting) and branching patterns on your trees. These patterns differ among the different fruit species, and are beyond the scope of this article. But French fruit growers have developed in incredibly complex lexicon for these various aspects of fruit tree development that enable them to manipulate the trees with incredible finesse.
One final distinction is important to make. As espaliered trees are subjected to intense pruning and 'braking' of growth with training, in general, rootstocks permitting vigorous growth should be used. Similarly, select vigorous, disease-resistant varieties.
While the French tradition honors over a hundred different forms, for the average gardener, a handful of these forms will more than suffice. So, following is a selection of the most familiar and useful fruiting forms, together with a summary of how to create them and suitable varieties.
The horizontal cordon. After the simple vertical cordon (a bit boring), the horizontal cordon is the simplest fruit form. It is ideally adapted to making an incredibly handsome low living 'fence.' It is accomplished by bending a one year whip at a right angle at 18 inches to 2 feet above ground level. You need a training post at every tree, and a tightly stretched training wire at the desired level between them.
Distance between trees. 3-6 feet (1-2 metres)
Training. The first year, the whip must be tied quite tightly to the framework, to ensure good formation. Cut the terminal back to a downward facing bud. Rub off all upward facing buds, keeping only laterals. In summer, pinch these back to 5 or 6 leaves. Each year, allow the main lateral branch to increase in length by about 9-12 inches, cutting it back in winter to an upward facing bud, and repeating the above maneuvers. Remember to keep the end of the lateral branch tipped up so that it keeps growing.
Suitable varieties. All apples and pears; currants.
Recommended rootstocks. M9 for apples; quince for pears. For oblique cordons, use M26 on apples.
Training period. Seven or eight years.
Life expectancy. Fifty years.
An attractive variation is the bilateral horizontal cordon. For this form, the whip is cut back a bit below the desired horizontal level. The first year, the two branches closest to the horizontal wire are trained in opposite directions. Afterwards, proceed as above.
This variation of the cordon (single fruiting stem) is more satisfying than the single horizontal cordon, in which a single stem is bent to the horizontal in one direction only, as you need fewer trees to create a 'fence' of the same length. Space the trees 10 to 12 feet apart.
Another interesting variation on the cordon is the oblique cordon. Spacing is as for a single cordon or a bit closer. This form is quicker to establish than the horizontal cordon for the reasons discussed above.
After the cordon and its variations, the palmette is the most widely used form in France. Any drive through the French countryside will reveal fruit trees trained in palmettes against the walls of farmhouses. There are almost infinite variations on the palmette, of course of increasing complexity.
In the past, when gardeners vied to create the most complicated and artistic espaliers possible, it was not unusual to see palmettes of up to 24 vertical branches. The main trunk was often insufficient to push sap through such a wide, horizontal expanse, and so the branches were often grafted midway to another trunk to aid in their nourishment.
The simplest palmette (above) is trained like the bilateral horizontal cordon, except that after the horizontal branches proceed 12-18 inches laterally from the trunk, they are turned at a 90-degree angle to the vertical. This gives a U-shaped palmette without a central trunk after the branch point. There are many variations, increasingly complex, on this basic U palmette (see diagram below), in which each branch of the initial U is headed back at a uniform level, and then two closely spaced branches resulting from the 'break' below the cut are trained once more in a U, and so on in iterations of the pattern.
In another family of variations of the palmette, a central trunk is conserved throughout the height of the palmette, and the horizontal elements all arise from this central trunk, before being turned upward at 90 degrees. This form is achieved in stages, with the central leader preserved until the level of the final U. The diagram below shows the first stage of formation.
Subsequent stages, achieved over a period of 2-4 years, are shown below.
There are almost an infinite number of other variations. For instance, a horizontal palmette can be created in which pairs of nearly opposite branches are trained horizontally of a central trunk, like a multi-layered bilateral horizontal cordon. See the diagrams below to visualize the steps in the training of this form.
Finally, fan palmettes can be created by keeping the central cordon and selecting pairs of branches much like for the horizontal palmette. But rather than training the branch pairs to the horizontal, they are trained at 45 degrees from the central leader, to create a fan pattern. See the diagram below to visualize this.
Or, the first 4 o4 5 branch pairs can be trained in concentric U's off the central trunk, with the following 4 or 5 branch pairs trained horizontally to 'fill' the U. For the French, the list just goes on and on! In a very general way, here are the guidelines for palmettes.
Space between trees. Variable from 8-12 feet according to the pattern selected and the vigor of the trees.
Training. For U palmettes without a central leader, he first year, a one-year whip is headed back just above a pair of closely spaced lateral-facing buds. The following summer, the resulting branches are trained to the horizontal, with sub-branches pinched back to 5 leaves. The second or third year, these scaffolds are turned 90 degrees to the vertical. Note that vertical supports must be supplied for these branches. Side shoots are again pinched back in summer to 5 or 6 leaves. If iterations are desired, these verticals are cut back above a closely spaced pair of lateral buds at the desired level, and the entire training cycle repeated.
For palmettes with a central cordon, one pair of closely spaced, lateral-facing buds are allowed to break per year, and then trained to the horizontal. They may in subsequent years be returned to the vertical, or may be left at the horizontal, depending on the final pattern desired. For fan palmettes, they are trained at 45-degree angles from the central leader. The usual pinching of laterals and turning upward of the growing tip on the horizontal are observed.
All these forms have in common that the vertical elements must be rigorously pruned and pinched to keep them at their desired height at maturity. With age, they will develop an incredible density of fruit buds.
Suitable varieties. For U-shaped palmettes, pears. For horizontal palmettes, apples and pears. Apples and pears for fan palmettes. Peaches may be trained in fan palmettes without a central leader.
Recommended rootstocks. Apples: M9 or M26 for vigorous varieties; M106 or M7 for less vigorous trees. Pears: quince rootstocks. Peaches: Standard varieties with good vigor.
Training period. 7-15 years.
Life expectancy.40-50 years for apples; 60-75 years for pears. Peaches are naturally shorter-lived.
If you really become impassioned with the art of espalier, you can use your imagination to create ever more fanciful forms. Forms can also be combined or distorted or adapted to "fill" prescribed architectural spaces. For example, an asymmetric fan planted at the base of a stairway can be trained to fill the triangular wall abutting the stairs as they mount. Cordons can be adapted to frame a doorway. The possibilities are endless.
For an exhaustive treatment of fruit tree forms, consult the book
Encyclopédie des Formes Fruitières, by Jacques Beccaletto. It is available for shipment to the US from www.amazon.fr. Although it is in French, it is so richly and clearly illustrated that it will be valuable even if you don't read a word. It also has many fine old photos of outlandishly complex espaliers.
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