The medlar is a funny fruit. Intriguing, revolting, seductive, rotten – a fruit that you must allow to go a bit ‘off’ before you can take the first bite. This is a fruit straight out of the Middle Ages, being referenced commonly as an allegory and metaphor for both aging (due to the bletting process required before consumption) and more, um, graphic things (due to its unique appearance) in literature from hundreds of years ago. The medlar experienced a precipitous decline, however, and in the span of a couple hundred years went from an important fruit crop to a forgotten relic of a bygone era.
A pity, too. The medlar tree is very handsome, with big strap-shaped glossy green leaves and large white flowers. The fruit, though strange, is supposed to be quite tasty fresh and excellent when cooked into jams, sauces, and desserts.
So, of course, I really, really want one. It’s not like I can head to the local bodega and pick a few up. I live in a rural Oregon town and thus have no specialty supermarkets. I’ve never seen them at the farmers market, either. So much like the decision to move to Oregon, I’ve decided to jump in blind.
I had never been to the Willamette Valley before my wife and I decided to move here. Likewise, I don’t think I will ever try a medlar unless I straight-up grow a medlar tree. So I am going to do that.
My wife and I live on just over a quarter acre, and though I would like to get my hands on more land eventually, a quarter acre will have to do for now. I need to save all the space I can get, which is where the medlar presents me with an annoying problem.
The medlar is a small tree, but ultimately I have too many things I want to grow to devote a tree-sized space to one. There are some techniques, however, that can help grow tree fruit in a small space.
The most notable of these is espalier. Espalier is an old technique, which is similar to the medlar in that it has a history going back well beyond the Middle Ages. It is almost like bonsai because it involves shaping the tree, but in espalier the tree is forced into a very small form that encourages heavy fruiting.
Can I espalier my medlar?
Espalier ranges from the informal to the rigidly formal. Formal espalier is commonly used with apples and pears, because these fruit appear on spurs and not at the branch tips. Fruits that appear on branch tips, like the medlar, do not espalier well (at least a formal espalier) because the growing tips are often removed when pruning a tree into the stricter espalier forms.
For those who wish to eat medlars but have little space to offer, however, there is still hope. Medlars, along with other tip-fruiting trees, can be grown in a fan shape which still heavily restricts the shape and size but still allows the tree to produce many growing tips that will flower and fruit. Pruning into a fan shape can vary from the formal to the very informal, and all should be okay when growing the medlar. This is the option I plan on going with when I plant my medlar tree in the spring.
The moral of the story is this: you probably shouldn’t espalier medlars, at least not if you care about yield. This goes for other plants that fruit at the tips. The fan shape, however, is suitable and should keep your medlar happy and making lots of fruit.
For a good example of a fan-trained medlar, see this link. For a clever way to eat medlar fruit, see here.
Header image credit goes to Andrew Dunn, Medlar pomes and leaves, CC BY-SA 2.0