Watching your very informative video from Northern Spain. Planning to plant an orchard on a piece of neglected farmland where there were little oak trees, etc, growing...so your video will be very helpful, I'm sure. Cheers!
Unless some of the existing trees are from the rose family you will probably ok. If there were aging trees one could potentially have some problems with certain fungi but smaller trees shouldn't be much trouble. Hope it goes well :)
Great video, just starting my mini apple orchard, 1st four are, Cordon - Norfolk royal russet and Crawley beauty (dual purpose) and a couple of Columnar - Irish Peach and Christmas pearmain
That is an interesting selection of varieties - always great to see some of the old sorts being planted. Norfolk royal russet is a lovely little apple too - fantastic aromatic flavour. Good luck with your orchard 🙂
@@jonnyskitchengarden We are very lucky on our allotment site that we have an orchard, due to lockdown no grafting workshop but apples were grafted anyway by fella who does the course and were sold on later in the year for a fiver a piece, I was lucky to nab two of them the CB & NRR, the IP & CP was earliest and latest cropping I could find but were also heritage, feel we have to keep these going or once lost that's it. I also have to duo trees bought for me, Bramley/Braeburn & Pear Conference/Concorde, these I will transfer to allotment in winter when dormant. Great thing about columnar/cordon is the little amount of space required.
Sounds great, especially at a fiver per tree! I'm very fond of cordons for the same reason - a great way to get lots of varieties into a small space :)
Cordons are definitely a great way to pack lots of varieties into a small space. I have laid mine down in the old fashioned way at around 45 degrees. The space between planting holes is around 36 inches / 900 cm which makes the gap between the parallel stems around 25 1/2 inches / 65 cm. I would suggest a minimum gap of 24 inches / 60 cm - they can be squeezed in a little closer but this spacing works well in my opinion. If you have a suitably long run, planting at an angle is beneficial, but if you are really short of space, you can planting them vertically, in which case the planting holes can be 24 inches / 60 cm apart. If you are able to lay them down towards 45 degrees you will have empty areas in the two opposite corners, so the plants at each end need to have a few extra branches trained in to fill the space (if you don't want it empty). If you do plant them vertically, you may need a more dwarfing rootstock and may need to shorten the main stem on planting to encourage bud break lower down the stem - there is a tendency for side shoots to develop only near the top of the main stem and that can leave bare patches that never get filled in. Quince tend to fruit on the tips so like tip bearing apples and pears, they are not really suitable for cordons and espaliers as the typically pruning regime would remove many of the fruit buds. It is best to stick with spur bearing sorts for this form.
Just found your channel and I love it. I am very grateful for your time and your knowledge. Warm regards, Jon in New Hampshire.
Thanks and welcome 🙂
Watching your very informative video from Northern Spain. Planning to plant an orchard on a piece of neglected farmland where there were little oak trees, etc, growing...so your video will be very helpful, I'm sure.
Cheers!
Unless some of the existing trees are from the rose family you will probably ok. If there were aging trees one could potentially have some problems with certain fungi but smaller trees shouldn't be much trouble. Hope it goes well :)
Very informative, thank you!
Great video, just starting my mini apple orchard, 1st four are, Cordon - Norfolk royal russet and Crawley beauty (dual purpose) and a couple of Columnar - Irish Peach and Christmas pearmain
That is an interesting selection of varieties - always great to see some of the old sorts being planted. Norfolk royal russet is a lovely little apple too - fantastic aromatic flavour. Good luck with your orchard 🙂
@@jonnyskitchengarden We are very lucky on our allotment site that we have an orchard, due to lockdown no grafting workshop but apples were grafted anyway by fella who does the course and were sold on later in the year for a fiver a piece, I was lucky to nab two of them the CB & NRR, the IP & CP was earliest and latest cropping I could find but were also heritage, feel we have to keep these going or once lost that's it. I also have to duo trees bought for me, Bramley/Braeburn & Pear Conference/Concorde, these I will transfer to allotment in winter when dormant. Great thing about columnar/cordon is the little amount of space required.
Sounds great, especially at a fiver per tree! I'm very fond of cordons for the same reason - a great way to get lots of varieties into a small space :)
I have very little space and this is a great idea! How big is the distance between the individual trees? Can I do this with quince trees too?
Cordons are definitely a great way to pack lots of varieties into a small space. I have laid mine down in the old fashioned way at around 45 degrees. The space between planting holes is around 36 inches / 900 cm which makes the gap between the parallel stems around 25 1/2 inches / 65 cm. I would suggest a minimum gap of 24 inches / 60 cm - they can be squeezed in a little closer but this spacing works well in my opinion. If you have a suitably long run, planting at an angle is beneficial, but if you are really short of space, you can planting them vertically, in which case the planting holes can be 24 inches / 60 cm apart. If you are able to lay them down towards 45 degrees you will have empty areas in the two opposite corners, so the plants at each end need to have a few extra branches trained in to fill the space (if you don't want it empty). If you do plant them vertically, you may need a more dwarfing rootstock and may need to shorten the main stem on planting to encourage bud break lower down the stem - there is a tendency for side shoots to develop only near the top of the main stem and that can leave bare patches that never get filled in.
Quince tend to fruit on the tips so like tip bearing apples and pears, they are not really suitable for cordons and espaliers as the typically pruning regime would remove many of the fruit buds. It is best to stick with spur bearing sorts for this form.