Mid-Summer Belgian Fence Apple Espalier - July 2021
Back at the beginning of Summer (or end of Spring), I planted two replacement trees in our Apple tree Belgian Fence to bring the total up to seven - of the needed eight trees. I used a couple of crabapple trees that are known pollinators for the existing Honeycrisp apple trees. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out my pruners secateurs and some padded wire and cleaned these trees up and wired the limbs in place. You can see the trees below. A few notes: I'm still missing tree #5 (from the left). I'll likely try to plant something this Fall. Tree #6 (from the left) is not pruned down far enough. I was concerned that all the growth was above my cut line, so I decided to leave some on a little higher. And scored some buds below/near the (ideal) cut line to try to push some new growth. The other five trees are in growing season #2. I'm now realizing that 18" is too close together. It will work, but the diamonds won't be as dramatic and I think they wou