258. Farlands' first espalier . . .

The stepover bed is now complete. Really, it should be called the stepover-and-espalier bed.

But it isn't.

The wires are all in place, and I have planted three stepover trees: an Egremont Russet, a Herefordshire Russett and The Big Purple (my favourite wilding from Reading - see previous blogs).




The most exciting bit is the espalier, a Cox Self-Fertile. I grafted it last March and three shoots grew so its future as an espalier was self-promoted!


As you can see from the photo, the espalier is now in situ with one lateral trained left and one trained right. The stem grows straight up and will in due course create the second and third tiers.

Espalier training is an art and this is my first go:-

So, the first step (now) is to prune for the second tier. I have left the stem so it just reaches the second tier and pruned it just above several buds. The terminal (ie top) bud should continue upwards towards the third tier. Hopefully other buds just below the terminal bud will also grow and I will train one along the cane at 45 degrees going left and one similarly going right.

In the Autumn I will remove the two canes at 45 degrees and drop the two new shoots and attach them to the horizontal wire of the second tier.

That's the theory, anyway.

Exciting isn't it?

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