Today I was planning to fill the whole fence with espaliered trees but I wasn't that lucky. It got pretty cold today and I ran out of steel wire so I was only able to do one tree.
Unlike the cherry tree, the pear tree I've done today is really well suited for espaliering.
This is the tree I started with. It wasn't too wild except for some bits at the top and some growth at the back that needed removing.
And this is how it looks now. I did some pruning as well and got rid of most of the top growth. There still is a branch on the right that is not in the right position but I will leave it for now in case the branch above doesn't do too well. Once the tree wakes up I will select the strongest top branch as the new leader and prune it at 2 buds to get the branches for the top layer. I might even try my hand at grafting some buds lower on the tree so I can have a bottom layer as well.
For the corner space I want to have a grape vine.
This plant received no pruning since I got it last year as I was not sure what I want to do with it.
I've decided to keep the 2 strongest branches. I will use one cordon for filling the space close to the corner of the fence and let the other cordon grow around the corner on the existing fence.
I thought I'd try to clone this vine so I kept the bits I cut.
I cut the 2 year old growth and only kept the bits from last year.
It's important to remember which way's up otherwise they won't root. I've buried 3-4 buds and kept 2 on top. From some reading I've done after the fact I understand that I should keep only one bud at the top. I will probably run a test and leave one of the sticks with one bud and the other one with 2 and see what the difference will be.
Alright, that's it for now.
Cheers!
