Does anyone have any information on growing fan shaped fruit trees?

Question

I would like to plant them along a fence. What spacing would I need. Do I have to have two for cross pollination. I would like to have an apple, pear and Victoria plum. I have approx. 28ft.available.

Answer 1

Hi JoJo.

That's loads of space and you will probably have sufficient pollinators from neighbours trees if you live in a reasonably urban environment.

The RHS book of Pruning and Training is well worth a read. You can probably borrow it from the library. Also another book called The Fruit Garden Displayed is a bit of a classic and often found second hand in book shops for a couple of pounds (in the UK).

This link gives some advice as to training:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0601/fan_train_fruit.asp

Hope you get plenty of fruit in the future and hope the advice helped a bit.

Answer 2

Victoria is self-fertile, and would make an excellent fan. Both apples and pears are more usually grown as espalliers, but there is no reason why they cannot be fan trained, and most varieties need a pollinator. If you only want, (or have room for), three trees, try getting two varieties grafted onto a single rootstock. By doing this you can also have both an "eater" and a "cooker", or extend your cropping season. Discuss your needs with a good nursery as you will need to buy ready trained trees as I'm guessing that you are new to this.
p.s. if you are in Jersey, contact me and I'll let you know a firm to avoid; they never deliver.

Answer 3

It is best to give your trees plenty of room so with 28ft i would plant them at 6ft to 8ft spacing. Use self fertile trees like Victoria plum, James grieves apple and conference pear. fan training is quite simple, plant your trees against a south facing wall, plant about 9 inch away from wall leaning in to it,
trees should be kept to about 6 or 7ft high, start with 2 branches trained at a 40 degree angle about 30cm above soil level, then train the branches about every 6inch onto horizontal wires. That's the basics, you would probably better to get a good gardening book and read up on the subject, its simple enough but you will learn more from a good book.

Good luck

Answer 4

Do you mean espalier?
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/quickref/general/espalier.html