Espalier & Fan-trained fruit trees for sale
If you are interested in trained fruit trees we offer several options:
2-year pot-grown Espalier and Fan-trained fruit trees
We have a small range of 2-year old container-grown trained trees. The range consists of:
- Espalier apple trees
- Espalier pear trees
- Fan-trained apple trees
- Fan-trained pear trees
- Fan-trained plum trees
- Fan-trained cherry trees
These trees have been pre-trained at our nursery so that you can get an immediate effect in your garden.
Click here for availability of 2-year espalier-trained apple and pear trees.
Click here for availability of 2-year fan-trained fruit trees.
There is a one-off delivery surcharge of approximately £50 - £60. We would confirm this with you before proceeding with your order. This surcharge will cover any number of trees, so it can be more cost-effective if you are ordering several other trees from us at the same time.
Unfortunately these trained trees can only be delivered to the mainland of England, along with some areas of Wales and some areas of southern Scotland.
These trees are supplied on a small pallet and you must make sure that someone is available at the delivery address to help the drive unload it. The pallet is not particularly heavy, but it is an awkward shape.
1-year bare-root partially-trained Espalier / Fan fruit trees
We also have some 1-year bare-root partially-trained trees. These trees are ideal if you want to have a go at training your own fan or espalier trees but are not sure how to start, because the critical initial pruning and training has already been done for you, and you can easily continue to grow the tree on as either an espalier or a fan. (Note that only apples or pears can be trained-on as espaliers, but all these trees can be trained-on as fans).
As supplied these trees consist of a single stem which has been cut back to about 3ft / 80cm, with 2 short arms at about 15" / 40cm. In the spring and summer after planting you should get considerable new growth from the arms which will form either the lower tier of your espalier or the framework of your fan. New shoots will also arise along the main stem and these can be trained-on as the start of additional espalier tiers, or additional arms for a fan, or removed altogether if you prefer a Y-shaped fan.
Availability of 1-year part-trained fruit trees.
Train your own
A further option is that you can train your own trees from first principles. This gives you the maximum flexibility in terms of choice of variety and rootstock, but will take a bit longer to achieve results. The best starting point is a 1-year bare-root tree on a suitable rootstock, which is then cut back to about 15" / 40cm to begin the fan or espalier process. We can advise on the best choice of variety and rootstock depending on your requirements.
More details about how to train your own fruit trees. We also recommend the RHS Pruning and Training book by Brickell and Joyce, which gives detailed instructions on fan and espalier training.
Spacings for trained fruit trees
A typical fan-trained fruit tree will need a width of 3m - 4m / 10ft - 14ft and a height of 2m - 3.5m / 6ft - 12ft. The dimensions will vary somewhat dependent on the vigour of the particular variety you are planting.
Plums and cherries might be at the upper end of this scale, while less vigorous apple varieties might be at the lower end of this scale.
Espalier-trained trees will need a width of roughly 3m - 3.5m / 10ft - 12ft and a height of 1.5 - 1.75m / 5ft - 6ft per tree, but these dimensions are only approximate and actual height and spread could vary considerably depending on your local conditions and how you prune the tree.
You also have some control of the height vs width, in that you can train the tree as it grows to fit the dimensions you have available. Individual espaliers tend to look more pleasing if the width is greater than the height, whereas fans will work with various proportions of width and height.
Our espalier-trained trees have arms at approximately 15" and 30" with potential for a third tier at about 45". We recommend that you do not put your wire supports in place until you have planted the trees, so that you can match the positions to the tiers.
If training your own then you have more flexibility to set the heights to meet your requirements, and you can use different rootstocks to achieve different overall dimensions - in general when growing trained fruit trees it is better to err on the side of more vigorous rootstocks.