After coming back from Filigreen Farms I decided we needed to turn our whole upper garden into espallier fruit trees. We planned to turn it into gardens anyway but now hopefully it will be a longer lived planting and easier for us to maintain as we get older than annual vegetables.
I’ve been learning grafting from my father in law and he also took me to meet another farmer who at 90 years old was still on a 14 foot orchard ladder pruning his peach trees. Both of them were encouraging and said apples and pears are especially easy to graft.Grafting our own trees is a cheaper way to get a quantity of trees and varieties maybe not available in the retail industry.
Both had seen orchards planted closely together. My father-in-laws friend said pears on 9 foot centers worked well. Also that Winter Nellis was his favorite root stock for pears. My father in law grew prunes on myrobalan root stock. These are also easy to graft. On to the scion exchange next weekend in Boonville .
I’m trying not to go too fast and to freak out my ever helpful husband. So re-fencing first. Although I might buy some rootstock and get it growing for grafting next year. Planting it in one of my garden beds for now.
