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Trellis Systems
A trellis system relies on the use of three to four wires to serve as support and training aids. Several ultimate tree forms or training patterns may be chosen in developing a trellis. Certain components critical to this system must be understood and avoided regardless of the tree form chosen:
1. Branches to be trained to the wires should always originate on the main trunk below the wire. Bending branches from the main trunk or axis down to the wire will encourage upright water sprouts at the point of the bend. Water sprouts are unproductive and lead to an overabundance of growth.
2. Do not keep every branch on the tree. Branches growing vigorously into the drive row should be removed. Do not try to bend every branch back into the wire.
3. As trees get older do not allow the upper portions of the trellis to become overly vigorous and shade out the lower branches. Maintain a pyramidal shape as is done with the central leader system.
4. It is not necessary to stop branches from extending into adjoining trees. The ideal is to create an interwoven wall of bearing surface.
The following is a “cookbook” method for training trees to a Penn State low hedgerow four-wire trellis system.
• Oblique Palmette is a central-axis tree with four pairs of oblique scaffolds spaced approximately 18 inches apart in a narrow vertical plane. Scaffolds from adjacent trees cross each other, forming a lattice framework on which bearing wood is developed and managed as the fruiting mantle of the trellis hedgerow.