Espalier - The art of training a tree into a flat, spreading growth pattern

I was reading through some of my mom's old gardening and pruning books, there is a page on Espalier.
Was wondering if anyone else has heard of this or has one going?
Here is a quick description from a website, I will try and find the books I speak of and post some better info.

Feel free to post pictures or info.

Espalier: "

that is pretty crazy looking

That's sick!If you can dig up any more info it would be very much appreciated.

all the pix shown are all rose family things...pretty ez to espalier. you can butcher them and they just keep coming back...it's probably my favorite family in the plant kingdom

dubekoms said:

That's sick!If you can dig up any more info it would be very much appreciated.

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Will do bro, just need to find that book first...

dannyboy602 said:

all the pix shown are all rose family things...pretty ez to espalier. you can butcher them and they just keep coming back...it's probably my favorite family in the plant kingdom

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Learn something new everyday, I had no idea all the fruits that are part the rose family...

That's an amazingly cool cat picture, dannyboy!

Hi...I'm brand new to the site, I've been growing outdoors for several years. This topic caught my eye because just this morning I began setting up trellises for a couple of my girls. The espalier is what I'm envisioning. Will post pictures if I have success!

"Stranger?"! Now, there's a welcome.

-workin' on my signature, seriouswhimsy

Some/most/all? of those appear to be apple trees, I have some nice grafted cultivars trained flat (honeycrisp,jonagold,elstar,gala,golden delicious,and so on). You can even buy them that way, although wheres the fun in that.

I have my peach trees lst'd but I suppose that's a little different. I would love more info on this particular topic.

Sorry for the hold up everyone, a very close family member passed away recently so I have been busy. I will try adding something soon but in the mean time feel free to post pictures of any trees that you have trained or plan on doing so with...

Any and all info/pictures of trees and training welcome

I've said this before but I think there should be a tree section in the gardening forums... anyone else?

Welcome to the site, seriouswhimsy, feel free to post your trellis idea...

• That's an amazingly cool cat picture, dannyboy!
  
  Hi...I'm brand new to the site, I've been growing outdoors for several years. This topic caught my eye because just this morning I began setting up trellises for a couple of my girls. The espalier is what I'm envisioning. Will post pictures if I have success!​
  
  
  
  

The Outdoorsman said:

Sorry for the hold up everyone, a very close family member passed away recently so I have been busy. I will try adding something soon but in the mean time feel free to post pictures of any trees that you have trained or plan on doing so with...

Any and all info/pictures of trees and training welcome

I've said this before but I think there should be a tree section in the gardening forums... anyone else?

Click to expand...

Great idea The Outdoorsman. I am a woodie plant fiend. I like the herbs (herbs meaning plants that die down to the ground in autumn)of the world but it's the trees that give me that special feeling of being kinda protected when I stand beneath one. I happen to live in the Piedmont area of the east coast. Piedmont meaning foothills. We have an amazing amount of trees here that grow well in our soils. and the mountains to the north and the ocean 100 miles to the east temper our weather so that we don't get the extreems many other parts of the country get. I would like to recommend an excellent book. it's the Manual of woody plants by Michael Dirr. Dirr is required reading in most universities and some of his books come with beautiful pix...here's a link from amazon with a lot of choices. the 1997 version...Dirr's Hardy trees and Shrubs is more of a coffee table book. not to dis it but it is a compendium compared to the paperback version with only black and white drawings. but i have it in my collection as well as his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. If you're going to spend money on an author...Michael Dirr is a must have. Wish I could have all of his books. many of the descriptions come with funny stories about his travels. and it makes for interesting reading. not stoic in the least. if you want to start a tree thread start one. i will be right there to help you along. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=manual+of+woddy+plants+++michael+dirr

Lo i was thinkin of doin this to my seedling (dodnt know it had a name tho) cos my main-lines took 90% of my area

Me too! Such resilient plants; I've seen some pretty gnarly OG Kush in an outdoor grow that looked like snakes wavering along the ground and in the air. Weather and chickens roosting in the branches had broken many of them down so they've grown in an almost espalier-ed (can I coin a word?) way. It was kinda creepy the way snakes immediately came to mind when I saw them! Don't see why you couldn't espalier cannabis. Might be fun to try as an experiment.

We want to espalier cottonwoods. They're also flexible and limber. Some of the Native American tribes, I've read, would bend cottonwood tops down and pin them to the ground to point in a certain direction for followers. The trees would just send out roots where they touch the ground and grow right back up again. We though it would be fun to make a series of arches along the driveway with cottonwood trees

dannyboy602 said:

Great idea The Outdoorsman. I am a woodie plant fiend. I like the herbs (herbs meaning plants that die down to the ground in autumn)of the world but it's the trees that give me that special feeling of being kinda protected when I stand beneath one. I happen to live in the Piedmont area of the east coast. Piedmont meaning foothills. We have an amazing amount of trees here that grow well in our soils. and the mountains to the north and the ocean 100 miles to the east temper our weather so that we don't get the extreems many other parts of the country get. I would like to recommend an excellent book. it's the Manual of woody plants by Michael Dirr. Dirr is required reading in most universities and some of his books come with beautiful pix...here's a link from amazon with a lot of choices. the 1997 version...Dirr's Hardy trees and Shrubs is more of a coffee table book. not to dis it but it is a compendium compared to the paperback version with only black and white drawings. but i have it in my collection as well as his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. If you're going to spend money on an author...Michael Dirr is a must have. Wish I could have all of his books. many of the descriptions come with funny stories about his travels. and it makes for interesting reading. not stoic in the least. if you want to start a tree thread start one. i will be right there to help you along. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=manual+of+woddy+plants+++michael+dirr

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Michael A Dirr manual is a required text for my Horticulture degree, a FANTASTIC read as well for us tree nerds . Great post dannyboy +Rep

I trained 3 apricot trees at the farm with Espalier training mate. The tree has to be established enough to have the resiliency to pruning, but you're essentially making the tree into a 2-D object pruning North and South branches and usually integrating a support line or trellis to aid in the strength for fruit production weight. I'd be happy to get further in depth if you want specifics for the pruning side of things, but fairly self-explanatory really. Helps the trees flourish by utilizing some of the structures heat offset ... those crafty French . ATB, keep it green all,

KC

i grew up with trees and bushes like this in my yard! i love this and have been doin it for years with all kinds of plants

Wow what you have there... thats just awesome!

Kinda like Mega-Sized Bonsai Trees.
lol... pretty cool.
I have a flowering tree in my yard, which a seed decided to grow near my A/C Unit.
I was planning to dig it out, and transplant it elsewhere, since it's a sapling of what will be a pretty tree.
Maybe I will try something like this.
Good Thread thanks for the idea!