Fruit trees are grown in a variety of shapes, sometimes to please the eye but mainly to encourage fruit production. The form or shape of
fruit trees can be manipulated by
pruning
Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots.
The practice entails the ''targeted'' removal of diseased, damaged, dead, ...
and training. Shaping and promoting a particular tree form is done to establish the plant in a particular situation under certain environmental conditions, to increase fruit yield, and to enhance fruit quality. For example, pruning a tree to a
pyramid
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilate ...
shape enables trees to be planted closer together. An open bowl or cup form helps sunlight penetrate the canopy, thus encouraging a high fruit yield whilst keeping the tree short and accessible for harvesting. Other shapes such as
cordons,
espalier
Espalier ( or ) is the horticultural and ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit, by pruning and tying branches to a frame. Plants are frequently shaped in formal patterns, flat against a struct ...
s and fans offer opportunities for growing trees two dimensionally against walls or fences, or they can be trained to function as barriers.
Forms
Some of the following fruit tree forms require training by tying the branches to the required form. Most require pruning to retain the desired structure. However, not all types of fruit tree are suitable for all forms;
apples
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
and
pear
Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosacea ...
s do well as cordons and espaliers, for example, whereas cherries are more suited to the fan form.
Bush
An open-centred crown on a short trunk of less than . This is a traditional and popular form for apple trees. Bush trees are easy to maintain and bear fruit at a young age. Final height is between and , depending on which
rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to a ...
is used.
[ Hessayon, Dr D. G., ''The Fruit Expert'', Transworld Publishers Ltd, 1997, p10]
Standard
Larger than the bush form, with trunks of or more. Standard trees can reach a total height of . They eventually produce high yields but, being large trees, are not easy to maintain.
[
]
Pyramid
Similar to the bush form, although the main leader shoot is allowed to maintain its dominance, resulting in a pyramidal shape.
Spindlebush
A variant of the pyramid form in which the lateral branches are tied down to a horizontal position.
Designed for dense orchards by Otto Schmitz-Hübsch
Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity".
The name is recorded ...
and Heinrichs in Germany in 1936, this is currently the most popular training system for dwarf apple and pear trees.
Cordon
Single-stemmed trees planted at an angle (usually 45°), with fruiting spur
In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spr ...
s encouraged to form along the stem. Any side branches are removed by pruning. Cordons take less space and crop earlier than most other forms, so more varieties can be grown in a given space, but yields are smaller per tree.
Espalier
A central vertical trunk with three or four horizontal branches on each side. A special espalier in this group is the LePage-system.
Fan
A short central trunk with several radiating branches growing from the crown.
Step-over espalier
Espaliers with just one tier of horizontal branches 30 cm from the ground. These make a novel and productive border for a vegetable plot.
A study on orchard mango trees in Nelspruit
Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit) is a city in northeastern South Africa. It is the capital of the Mpumalanga province. Located on the Crocodile River, Mbombela lies about by road west of the Mozambique border, east of Johannesburg and north ...
, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
, compared open vase, closed vase, central leader, palmette and standard pruning systems and recommended a modified pyramid, somewhere between a central leader and a closed vase system, for high-density mango orchards. The study also evaluated both post-fruit-set and post-harvest pruning, indicating that late mango cultivars benefit from pruning while bearing in late fall, while early cultivars may be best pruned immediately after harvest.[
]
Yield and spacing
Images
Image:Orchard3.jpg, A community apple orchard originally planted for productive use
Image:BoucheThomas fruittreeformdescription.JPG, Description of the Bouché-Thomas fruit tree form
Image:Lepage fruittreeform.JPG, Photo of the LePage fruit tree form
Image:Lepage fruittreeform description.JPG, Description of LePage fruit tree form
Image:Singlerow fruittree system.JPG, Description of the single row fruit tree form setup
Image:Spindlebush description.JPG, Description of the spindlebush fruit tree form
Image:Spindlebush fruittreeform.JPG, Photo of the spindlebush fruit tree form
Image:JeukseHaagDescription.JPG, Description of the "Jeukse Haag" fruit tree form
Image:Standard fruittreeform.JPG, Photo of the standard fruit tree form
Image:Dubblerow fruitttree system.JPG, Description of the double row fruit tree form setup
Image:Triplerow fruittree system.JPG, Description of the triple row fruit tree form setup
See also
* Fruit tree pollination
Pollination of fruit trees is required to produce seeds with surrounding fruit. It is the process of moving pollen from the anther to the stigma, either in the same flower or in another flower. Some tree species, including many fruit trees, do not ...
* Fruit tree propagation
Fruit tree propagation is usually carried out vegetatively (non-sexually) by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock.
Perennial plants can be propagated either by sexual or vegetative means. Sexual reproduction begins wh ...
* Orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of ...
s
* Pruning fruit trees
Fruit tree pruning is the pruning, cutting and removing of selected parts of a fruit tree. It spans a number of horticulture, horticultural techniques. Pruning often means cutting branches back, sometimes removing smaller limbs entirely. It may ...
* Tree shaping
Tree shaping (also known by several other alternative names) uses living trees and other woody plants as the medium to create structures and art. There are a few different methods used by the various artists to shape their trees, which share a ...
References
{{Reflist
Books and publications
* Burvenich, Frederik (1879). ''Snoei der Fruitbomen''.
Forms
Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens.
Form also refers to:
*Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data
* ...
Horticultural techniques
Agronomy