Go Cordon

If you want to grow pome fruit (apples and pears and quince principally) but need to make the best use of limited space, cordons are the answer

- David Patch

This month we are talking about space. Not the final frontier kind (‘to boldly go’ was my English teacher’s favorite example of a split infinitive), but the ‘running out of ’ kind. Even when taking over a new larger garden or an allotment, there will come a point after a few short years where you struggle to see how you can fit in any new plants.

It’s at this point that there is normally some sort of cull, to leave only plants which earn their keep, for example, ornamentals which have several seasons of interest, rather than just a brief flash in the pan and then 11 months of staid greenery (flowering cherry trees, I’m looking at you here).

For the fruit grower, we have to start to look at squeezing every last bit of production out of the space available. For top fruit trees, the easiest way to do this is to grow trained trees on wires or against a fence, and the most intensive method for this is to grow trees as cordons.

SINGLE STEMS

Cordons are a single main stem, with very short side branches that are pruned back hard to only 10cm (4in) or so from the main stem. Fruit appears on spurs on these short side shoots, and this method can be so intensive that the trunk is almost hidden from view by the fruit. They are pruned so tightly that they can be spaced only 1m (3ft) apart, so you can get a lot of fruit in a very small space.

You’ll see cordon trees described variously as ‘Ballerina’, ‘Minaret’, ‘super columns’, or ‘oblique cordons’, so best start with the differences between these to decide which is most suitable for your needs.