With the help of the info on this lovely forum, I've delved into an espalier fruit tree project for a friend. A couple weeks back, I planted two pears and two apples on the East side of Mt. Tabor in Portland, OR: a Ubileen and a Bartlett on semi-dwarf rootstock, and a Gravenstein and Liberty on M-26 rootstock from One Green World. The soil drains well, there's good afternoon light, and a sloping fence from about 6 to 5 feet high with training wires already set up. I planted them bare root fairly loose, and I haven't yet watered them due to our recent wet spell.

My questions mainly revolve around espalier: I've zip-tied some of the small branches to the wires to secure and hopefully train them, but there must be a better resource out there on espalier technique specifically? Seeing as these trees are already about 5 ft. tall, I don't want to wait too long in pruning them back to training size (ie needs to happen before the spring growth, I imagine). Any successes/challenges with these varieties/rootstocks? Any problems with zip ties for training, and do you have a better suggestion?