When I moved here and planted fruit trees, I used the standard recommendations for training fruit trees. They sucked. It took years to get the form I wanted. But I was assured that the trees must be cut back for various reasons. I was told if I did not head back the top, trees would not be able to establish or would not branch out and make scaffolds. Or once branches formed, if I didn’t cut them back the scaffolds would be too long and weak, and again would not branch out. That turned out to be wrong as far as I’ve seen. After a while, I quit and started using notching of buds to force scaffolds where I wanted them. It seemed to work really well. I was already full in on doing that and recommending people try it. Then I ran across an amazing study on apple trees from about 1920 where they looked at common recommendations and practices and how they played out in mature trees. They found that while farmers wanted a certain form, when they followed the common recommendations, they usually got something else. Also, many problems were incurred in the trees they did get, related to the training methods. They also surveyed the literature back to the 1700’s and found the same common recommendations. And I was like yeah, right? they suck.
So these guys set about to figure out a better training method that would actually result in the desired forms and healthier longer lived trees. The tested the common assertions that the leading tips of trees and the scaffolds needed to be headed back and decided they did not. They settled on a simple method of disbudding to focus growth in certain areas to create scaffolds. I combined this with the very similar approach of notching that I was already using and as a package, it has worked remarkably well. I can get the tree forms I want much faster now and I usually get the branches pretty much just where I want them as long as there is a viable bud in that area that points in the right direction. IT’S SO MUCH BETTER.
I think that techniques like these, that work with the physiology of the tree are the future of fruit tree training. I would like to work with these ideas more and then package the ideas in digestible transmittable form for general use. Ideas that could be communicated in a one page hand out or quick video. In order to do that, I need to do certain things and have access to certain resources. Number one, I need access to land for long enough. Second I need assistance in growing and caring for rows of trees. Third, I need enough money to buy whatever I need.
Phase one was my initial application of these ideas, where I have been able to, and observing their effectiveness. The results are very compelling, but limited in scope, species and variety.
Phase two is to grow out significant numbers of trees of different common fruit species and apply various techniques to different percentages of them for reasonably controlled experiments of a large enough size to get some compelling data. And do that as many times as necessary to feel comfortable proceeding. At this point, home and commercial orchardists will be encouraged to try it out as well so we keep getting more information and confirmation or highlighting of problems. Having more people applying it, is likely to generate other techniques and tweaks as well.
Phase Three is packaging the idea for common use. This phase involves creating simple instructional content and printable sheets that can be easily shared or reproduced. A common umbrella name is needed that will allow for the idea to be talked about and transmitted easily. It may be hard to displace current dogma and recommendations. The more content and more positive community experience is accumulated, the easier that will be. It could also be tested by someone like a grad student or ag sciences department to confirm its effectiveness in order to lend “proof” and credence. At that point, my work will be pretty much done and fingers crossed that it will take root and spread.
Once I acquire land and get infrastructure up and running for growing. A garden and orchard manager will be critical for keeping a project like that running. There will also be some costs for things like rootstock, fertilizer, irrigation etc. It’s important to grow the trees out well to get good strong whips. That means fertilizer, soil improvement as necessary. weed control and fertilizer.
Another aspect of this project will be testing the feasibility of the idea that nurseries could sell mostly whips instead of two year old trees of some species. Whips are ideal for training this way. I’d like to test the feasibility of different options, like sending out whips with instructions and sending out whips already prepared that just need to be planted and allowed to grow the first year, with the simple removal of a few branches in the second year. This testing of the feasibility of that interface between nurseries and consumers could possibly be combined with a short term, small nursery project, or by growing out trees and donating them to a tree planting organization.
Honestly, working out this problem is badly needed. The content and instruction available on training fruit trees is confusing, inadequate and like I said, the methods don’t even work well. Before I decided I need to move, I had just had a huge trench dug by an excavator using money donated by a supporter, in order to start these experiments and about 5 or 6 others combined. Now it’s just a hole. This project is a potential game changer and should get done. It may not work on all species (to be tested) but I think it will prove to work on at least most common fruit trees. It will very likely result in millions of trees growing faster, healthier and into more ideal forms and the millions of people that plant them being less confused and more educated about their trees and tree training. I call the current recommendations clip and pray. It does not work well. It’s just easy, and the reasons given for using it are likely not an actual problem. Already the information I have put out on training fruit trees from the initial planting is heads above anything I’ve seen available, except the 1920’s apple study. I just want to do it the rest of the way, the way it should be done.
Oh, and I have the prototype in my head of a clip that would assist in training buds outward as strong angles, another problem usually not addressed by common recommendations, but quite important.