Saturday, December 5, 2009

Espalier Apple Tree

esplaier apple When we moved here 17 years ago we fell in love with the taste of our neighbors apples.  Small snacking apples with not much "keeping" or canning properties. But, so fresh and sweet and delicious.  Our neighbors didn't eat them, so Ted would pick them by the small basket and we'd eat them and share them with anyone who came around. My garden has more plants than space. So years ago we decided to add this tree to our garden by means of grafting a branch from our neighbors unknown variety tree onto dwarf root stock M26.  This gave us a miniature version of their tree. My goal was not a particular pattern. Just a narrow, space saving tree. I planted the M-26 root stock, which came as a small tree,  the summer before.  In late winter while the neighbor's tree was still dormant we took some branch cuttings.  I kept the cuttings in the refrigerator crisper in a plastic bag with moist peat moss.  In the  spring when the M26 root stock tree was breaking dormancy, Ted's strong hands cut the notch for the graft, matched the neighbor's branch to the root stock and I taped it together and voila!  We have our own apple tree.  This picture was from this fall.  You can click on the picture to get a better look at the tree.

10 comments:

  1. I am impressed...that looks like a wonderful tree!

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  2. Hi Gloria,

    I am really impressed! To grow an apple tree that you actually grafted yourselves, not to mention training it as a espalier.....I am speechless with admiration. I tried my hand at grafting citrus some time ago, but did not have very good results ;0)

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  3. What a bounty of fruit you have on your tree. I so admire your talent in Espalier ... I would not know where to begin. Beautiful!

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  4. I have never tried grafting, but Im thinking to try it, also with some apple trees... It looks so easy...

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  5. That is great that you have your own tree now. Looks like it's loaded with apples. Do they taste just like your neighbors or a little different? Good work and great post!

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  6. That is great! Looks like it gives you lots of apples! Do you do anything to keep the worms out of the fruit? I have a terrible time with ours. We get lots of apples, but most have worms.

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  7. Very clever! And, so many apples! Before I learned about grafting, I planted my fave, Harrelsons, from seed. So, they'll never turn out to be edible. When I'm back in Wisconsin next summer I may have to beg, borrow and plead from some grafting stock! :D

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  8. Gloria girl ! .. now that is innovative ! .. you knew how good those apples were and even though your neighbor had no idea of their identity you stuck to them and now have your own growing .. you have to love this method .. our neighbor has one that is beautiful.
    We have gone through two types of apple trees .. the last one was grafted with 4 different kinds of apples .. but fruit trees just don't seem to take well for some reason .. my impatience perhaps ?
    So .. we replaced that apple with .. get this .. a serviceberry .. but this one is special .. it is called Autumn Brilliance .. it is for the colour in Autumn (that is my favorite time of year) .. so the little berries would be great to try but the "robinator" seems to get to most of them before we could.
    Next .. I am hunting down a "Korean Maple" tree .. it is very much like the appearance of Japanese Maples but more zone tolerant and sun tolerant for our climate from what I have read.
    Every Spring ... I have a "MISSION" ... haha
    Thanks for stopping by my blog : ) .. come back soon ? LOL

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  9. Oh my!! my mouth watered when I see those apples. Now I must get one to quench my craving.

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  10. Those apples look really good and juicy.

    Did you use a flash in the photo? The lighting looks a little weird. Nice blog btw. here

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