I have sought advice regarding espallier for apples and been advised that it is not appropriate to use more than one variety per tree as the more vigorous variety will dominate. Is it possible to manage this with pruning and/or fertilisation? I have a 9 metre north facing wall ( equivalent to south facing for you northerners so should get reasonable sun and I was planning to put four or five timber posts and perhaps four stainless steel marine wires as supports set in about 300mm away from the wall. I want as many trees and as many varieties as is reasonable. Do you have any thoughts on this proposal for a city garden?
Why not use different varieties on separate trees? If the wall is 9 meters long you could use several varieties, each on a separate tree. You just need to select groups of those that bloom at the same time for cross pollination. Newt
Suggested spacing. I have heard as close as 1 metre or 3 feet but could you plant any closer than that? There are new single primary stem apples with short stumpy laterals- i assume they would be best for such close planting? RBentley
R, are you referring to the columnar trees? If so, here's a couple of interesting conversations about them. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=6554 http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/NAFEX/message-archives/old/msg03032.html Newt
