The Minot man has fruit trees in his yard and also in containers.

Tiller started growing fruit trees several years ago when, as a retiree, he decided he needed more to do and also to spend less time on his computer on the internet.

He turned to the internet, though, to find all that he could about growing fruit trees. Then he came upon information about container trees and espaliering.

“Oh boy, that was right up my alley,” he said. He also used the internet to find the details about grafting fruit trees.

Eloise Ogden/MDN George Tiller has done what is called espalier – shaping the apple trees by pruning and tying the branches. The design of this tree is horizontal cordon. Another apple tree in his yard is fan shaped.

“The apple trees (in his yard) are eight years old. They were bought and planted in 2014,” said Tiller.

Tiller also does the art of espalier, the agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth for the production of fruit, by pruning and tying branches to train them for a desired shape.

One of the apple trees in his yard is fan shaped and the other one is horizontal cordon. The fan-shaped tree is 12 feet tall and the horizontal cordon tree is 8½ feet tall. The latter tree is supposed to grow to 24 feet, Tiller said. He said he does not let the trees get full sized. Instead they are a height at which he can reach the fruit.

“The downside to too much shaping and too much bending is it weakens the branches for holding fruit because they have no strength anymore and will break them off. I have all my branches supported,” Tiller explained.

He said he first started the two pear trees now growing in his yard in tubs.

Eloise Ogden/MDN George Tiller indicates (below his hand) where he has grafted a different variety of an apple tree onto the “mother” tree.

“They are four and five years old and been out in the yard for two and three years,” he said. “It took a year or two of courage before I put them out in the yard and know whether they would survive at 28 below.” But, he said they have flourished.

This year, he said the pear trees have grown extensively.

“They didn’t last year. The roots have taken hold, I guess, and it’s that 40 inches of snow that we got in April that really must have set it up good,” he said.

He has peach and nectarine trees growing in containers on his patio. If it gets windy or if a storm is coming, all he has to do is pull the containers with the trees into his garage. In the winter they are kept in his garage. He built dollies to put under each container for ease of moving them.

Tiller said people might think fruit trees growing in containers would have inferior fruit.

Eloise Ogden/MDN George Tiller has dollies under each container with a fruit tree so he can easily move them into his garage during bad weather and for winter months.

“You’ll never eat another peach out of a store if you eat one of these,” Tiller said, especially indicating an Early Elberta peach tree with large peachy-colored fruit on it. He said Early Elberta was a mainstay in this country for around 50 years.

Tiller said he picks his varieties according to hardiness.

“This one apple tree is Honey Crisp, this is Honey Gold and the two pears were bought for their winter hardiness. And even the peaches, even though they’re indoors, I bought the hardiest ones I could get in case I put them outdoors. The nectarine is actually a Canadian nectarine originated in southern Ontario,” he said.

“Another thing I’m very particular about besides hardiness is the quality of the fruit,” Tiller said. Again he turns to the internet for that information.

Tiller said there are two facets to these trees.

Eloise Ogden/MDN These large peaches are on one of the fruit trees that George Tiller has growing in a container.

“First you are trying to grow wood – trying to grow a tree – and then you’re trying to grow fruit,” he said.

Next spring Tiller plans to plant a couple of the trees that are in containers in the ground and just have two or three trees in containers.

Tiller also self-taught himself how to graft fruit trees. Via the internet, he sends for a 12-inch piece of wood from an apple tree and then cuts off two or three buds from it. He said a corresponding notch is cut in the “mother” tree’s limb and the bud is placed in there, then wrapped and tied. He has four varieties of apples on one of his trees – the “mother” tree plus three other varieties. His other apple tree also has grafts of apple varieties.

“The tree wood should be moist when you do this so that the wound heals without drying up,” Tiller said. Because of the drought, he said his first two years of grafts all failed.

“I think the wound dried up and they did not take. But maybe my grafting got better. You have to cut them pretty precise. You can’t have an ugly wound,” he said.

He said grafting has to be done at a certain time of the year and with grafting, it’s four years before seeing what has been accomplished.

Of growing fruit trees, he said, “They’re a lot of work.” But he said he enjoys it.