Talk:Espalier

Adding & editing content

I have added some information to this article, however, much of what was previously here seems to have been taken verbatim from http://www.mygarden.net.au/flex/espalier/122/1 - I will try to rewrite if I have time, but if somebody else has time first, great. The preceding unsigned comment was added on 15:45, September 2, 2006 by Mjkelley79

Word choice

The article talks about cherries, peaches, and apricots being "happier" -- something like "grow better" would be much more accurate. 173.50.234.152 (talk) 03:37, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Sections

Lead Section

The lead sentence is problematic. Espalier is not a technique, but a practice (or perhaps if well practiced, an art), which employs several arboricultural, agricultural, and horticultural techniques, some as noted. I am going to work on that, and on establishing some references for this article. Duff (talk) 03:19, 15 June 2010 (UTC)

Note from 74.67.19.152

Note: initial comment moved here from User talk:Quiddity. -- Quiddity (talk) 06:02, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

I am the guy who added to the espalier article. I am upper limb disabled and have some trouble. I also couldn't sign in for the same reason. Though I train espalier fruit trees for sale among other things and maintain a web site much of what I do is done at great effort due to the paralysis in my right hand and other problems in my left.

Lots of people seem to think espalier is just a method created by a bunch of designers when it was created instead to produce better quality fruit and larger crops. So much discussion of espalier doesn't reflect that.

When I read the earlier suggestions concerning espalier I thought I should point out what was wrong from my perspective.

Then there are those who talk about espalier being first done in the 16th century when espalier training of grapes for wine has been done for thousands of years. Do they really think that the kniffen system of training grapes isn't espalier? By training vines or branches horizontally we can reduce the vigor of growth and replace it with maximum fruit production. Any fruit tree that had fallen and lay prostrate or was otherwise constrained to grow horizontally through natural means would have out produced trees that were more vertically capable. Our ancestors weren't stupid. They no doubt observed this tendency long before Rome was founded. There are of course murals of grapes being grown on wires from the Roman era. And Horizontal T would have been the most productive method. Other systems of espalier no doubt didn't come into use until much later but the Horizontal T method of training fruit and flowers (roses) is no doubt much older. 74.67.19.152 (talk) 05:15, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for that explanation. I'm not a topic expert, just an interested copyeditor, so I'll move this comment to the article's talkpage for the benefit of the regular editors. -- Quiddity (talk) 06:02, 14 September 2010 (UTC)