If ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’ makes sense to you, then so does the idea of setting up one’s own apple tree nursery. A flair of gardening and good health are required, the latter in fact benefiting from the gardening activity itself.
Before starting an apple tree nursery, choose an apple variety like the Espalier that requires less space without compromising healthy growth. By training the arms of the branches horizontally on either side of the stem, you will have a nursery that not only looks good but also saves much space and hence proves more productive.
Buying Espalier Apple for Your Tree Nursery
If you are dying to see your apple trees flower and fruit no later than a year or two, buy partly trained trees from specialists. Alternatively, you can develop a more parent-child relationship with your tree nursery members by purchasing bare-root Espalier trees for planting in winter.
Shaping the Tree Nursery
First of all, choose an open sunny site near a south/west-facing fence. Since the branches of the tree are to be trained, the hole dug for the plant should be near a post as well as near to the fence.
The hole dug should be deep, wide, and forked over at the base so as to break up the subsoil for improving drainage and mixing in well-rotted compost. The hole should be large enough to allow spreading out of the roots.
Before planting the tree, it is important to soak its bare roots in water for some hours. After fixing the plant in the mix, fill in around the roots with compost and fertilizer added to the soil. Let the bulbous graft union at the stem’s baser rest above the soil level.
Water at least two gallons to soak the soil around the plant and settle it down among the plant’s roots. Fill any hole with soil and water once every two weeks to keep the soil moist. To train the tree’s branches, tie them down to support wires that run along the fence. Fix each arm in more than one place using string or wire ties.
As growth proceeds into the following winter, cut the main shoot at the tip by as much as 18 inches above the last tier. Leaving the shoot to grow straight, tie those on the sides to horizontal training wires at the year’s end for the sake of next tier.
Repeat this process with the new branches on each side to prevent them from advancing straight up. At the end of each season, new tiers should be formed. Water regularly till the trees are independent in the uptake of water and nutrients from the soil. Pruning from end July to mid August is recommended.
