Pillar fruit has been enjoying increasing popularity in recent years, as it promises a tempting yield of apples, pears or cherries freshly harvested from the tree, even in the smallest of areas. Since this type of fruit tree can only be found in specialist shops at relatively high prices, many a hobby gardener would just like to grow his columnar fruit himself.

Growing columnar fruit yourself is a challenge

Cultivating columnar fruit is not that easy

When we talk about so-called columnar fruit, nowadays it usually doesn't just mean the topiary of fruit trees into a columnar shape. Rather, it is about fruit that grows in the form of a column, which obtains and retains its special growth form without the gardener having to do anything. This works through the use of specially selected material, from which plants with very specific genetic predispositions to their growth habit are grown. As a rule, the shoots of a columnar apple, pear or other type of fruit are grafted on a rather strongly growing rootstock. The goal here is that the roots of the plant, as a strong-growing base, can transport many nutrients into the plant's sap cycle, while the top part of the plant allows for maximum fruit yield with little growth in plant mass. Columnar cultivars are now available, for example, from the following fruit varieties:

  • apples
  • pears
  • cherries
  • plums
  • plums
  • apricots
  • peaches

These ingredients are needed for the culture of home-grown columnar fruit

So in order to be able to grow columnar fruit completely yourself, it is far from enough to germinate the cores of apples or pears. After all, the high yield of columnar fruit in the context of the special growth form is only possible through the combination of a corresponding scion with a suitable rootstock. Of course, there are also hobby gardeners who are very familiar with the grafting of fruit trees and are therefore confident in growing columnar fruit in their own garden. However, many of the elaborately bred columnar fruit varieties are protected varieties, the reproduction of which is legally illegal or at least in a certain gray area.

Bring conventional types of fruit into a columnar shape through targeted cutting

As an alternative to the effort of growing your own columnar fruit with all the associated difficulties, you could also try to bring a "normal" or unrefined fruit tree into at least an approximate columnar shape by means of specific pruning measures. For this, however, it is necessary to start as early as possible with well-considered cuts. However, it must also be clear to you that the columnar fruit trees grown in this way have to be pruned very regularly and often cannot keep up with the elaborately refined cultivars in terms of yield.

tips

You can bring raspberries and blackberries into a columnar shape without any grafting measures if you simply tie them to a corresponding climbing aid every year as new canes grow.

Category:

Trees