Advice
RHS Help & Advice
Fan-trained fruit
Images: Tim Sandall
Ornamental and attractive, fan-trained fruit trees can add interest to a wall and produce crops of high-quality fruit. By following simple rules it is possible to create your own specimens and with further easy maintenance, maintain their shape and productivity for years to come.
Why grow fruit as a fan?
Growing fruit against a wall as a fan-trained plant is an efficient and productive method of cultivation. Plants take advantage of microclimates associated with walls, lengthening growing seasons, protecting delicate blossom and enabling fruit to ripen fully. Developing fruit can be netted to protect from bird attack and blossom covered with fleece in case of damaging late frosts.
Fan training is iusually associated with stone fruit - such as plums, cherries, figs, nectarines, peaches and apricots.
Within a small garden fan-trained trees are particularly beneficial, as they require little space, yet add interest to a dull wall.
Planting fan-trained fruit
A fruit tree grown as a fan is usually trained with two branches each at a 40-degree angle to the ground, approximately 30cm (12in) above soil level. Trees are generally grown against a wall or fence, although it is possible to grow them on a freestanding system of supports. On a wall, trees usually have a minimum height of 1.8m (6ft) with horizontal wires fixed 15cm (6in) - or two brick courses - apart. They should be planted 15-23cm (6-9in) from the wall with the stem sloping slightly towards it. Spacing will depend on fruit type and rootstock but, as a rule of thumb, space plants 5m (16ft) apart.
It is common to see ready-shaped ‘fans’ for sale where the long central leader has been retained with laterals radiating out at angles along its length. However, this tends to produce excessive growth at the top, leaving the base bare and creating an unbalanced structure.
Establishing a fan-trained tree
The following details are suitable for establishing most fruit as a fan from a ‘feathered maiden’: a young tree with a central stem and laterals, most often offered for sale.
Peaches, plums, apricots, cherries and figs are often grown as fans, but this method is also suited to apples and pears, and some soft fruit such as gooseberries and currants, which will do well on a north wall. Formative pruning for stone fruit should be done at bud burst in spring but apples and pears are pruned when dormant.
Formative pruning in the first year
To train a fan from a feathered-maiden tree, select two healthy laterals 30cm (12in) from the ground and remove the leader above the top lateral. Prune each to 38cm (15in), to stimulate sublaterals and tie to canes attached to the wires at 40 degrees with a loose figure-of-eight knot. Prune back other shoots below to one bud. These act as reserve shoots.
In summer select two equally spaced shoots on the upper side of each branch and one from below to form the ‘ribs’. Tie these in to canes at 30 degrees. Choose a shoot to continue the main laterals and pinch back other shoots to one leaf, removing any badly placed shoots.
Formative pruning in the second year
Cut back extension growth on main arms by one quarter to a strong bud. Remove any growth below the lowest arms completely.
In early summer continue to tie in selected shoots to fill in the framework, using further canes. Pinch out weak shoots, and remove altogether over-vigorous shoots and any facing inwards or outwards.
Pruning in the third year
Shorten new ribs by a quarter in early spring (above left). Select further shoots to complete the main ribs.
Thin sideshoots to 10-15cm (4-6in) apart choosing those naturally growing in line with the fan. Remove any shoots growing in the wrong direction (above middle). As the framework fills out, cut any overlapping shoots to four to six leaves (above right). Upright growth above the topmost support wire should be removed or bent over and tied in.
Ongoing care
Once the fan’s framework is filled out, the emphasis of pruning changes from stimulating growth to controlling it and avoiding overcrowding. Some older wood can be removed if there is a young shoot further down to tie in.
Tony Dickerson