If you're looking to get more out of your backyard orchard, festooning fruit trees might be the simplest trick you haven't tried yet. It sounds a bit fancy—like something you'd do with ribbons at a party—but in the gardening world, it's a remarkably effective way to get your trees to stop putting all their energy into leaves and start focusing on fruit. Basically, you're just bending branches down to change the way the tree grows, and honestly, the results can be pretty dramatic if you do it right.
Most of us are used to the idea of pruning. We get the shears out in the winter, hack away at the dead wood, and hope for the best. But festooning is a bit different. It's more about "training" the tree than cutting it. By tying down the young, flexible branches so they curve toward the ground, you're messing with the tree's internal chemistry in the best way possible.
What is festooning anyway?
At its heart, festooning is just the practice of arching long, supple branches downward and securing them in place. Instead of letting a branch shoot straight up toward the sun, you pull it down into a hoop or a graceful curve. You can tie the tip of the branch to the trunk, or even peg it into the ground.
When a branch grows vertically, the tree sends all its "growth hormones"—specifically something called auxins—straight to the tip. This tells the tree to keep getting taller and taller. It's great for a tree in the wild that needs to outcompete its neighbors for light, but it's not great for a gardener who wants a basket full of apples. When you bend that branch down, those hormones get distributed differently. The tree gets confused (in a good way) and starts developing "fruiting spurs" all along the length of the horizontal branch instead of just growing more wood at the top.
Why you should give it a shot
The biggest reason people start festooning fruit trees is simply to get more fruit, faster. If you've got a young tree that's spent the last three years just getting taller without producing a single pear or apple, festooning can kick-start the process. It's like telling the tree, "Hey, quit it with the height; let's see some blossoms."
Another huge benefit is light. When a tree grows naturally, the middle often becomes a tangled mess of branches that shade each other out. This lack of light means the inner parts of the tree won't produce much. By pulling the branches down and outward, you're opening up the canopy. Suddenly, the sun can hit parts of the wood that haven't seen the light of day in years. More sun equals more sugar, and more sugar equals sweeter, bigger fruit.
Plus, it keeps your tree manageable. If you have a small backyard, you don't want a thirty-foot monster that requires a terrifyingly tall ladder to harvest. Festooning keeps the "fruiting zone" much lower to the ground. You can literally walk up to the tree and pick your breakfast without ever leaving the grass.
Picking the right time to do it
Timing is everything here. You generally want to get into festooning during the summer months, usually around July or August in the northern hemisphere. This is when the new growth is long and flexible. If you try to do this in the dead of winter, the wood is often too brittle and "snappy." You'll end up hearing a sickening crack rather than getting a nice curve.
Working in the summer also helps with the hormone shift I mentioned earlier. By bending the branches while the tree is actively growing, you're influencing how it sets its buds for the following year. You're essentially "programming" the tree over the summer so that when spring rolls around, it's ready to burst into bloom.
How to actually do it without breaking things
You don't need a degree in horticulture to pull this off, but you do need a bit of a gentle touch. Start with the "lateral" branches—the ones coming off the main trunk that are about the thickness of a pencil or a bit more.
- Grab some soft twine. Don't use thin wire or anything that's going to bite into the bark. The tree is going to grow, and you don't want to strangle the branch. Old pantyhose or soft garden string works wonders.
- Find your anchor point. You can tie the end of the branch back to the main trunk, or you can use a tent peg in the ground. I've even seen people tie small weights or plastic bottles filled with water to the branches to pull them down, though that can look a little messy.
- Bend slowly. Take the tip of the branch and gently pull it down into an arch. You're looking for a nice "rainbow" shape. Don't force it. If it feels like it's going to snap, back off a bit.
- Tie it off. Secure the branch so it stays in that arched position. You want the highest point of the curve to be the middle of the branch, not the tip.
- Check it periodically. As the tree grows, the string might get tight. Make sure you're not girdling the branch. Usually, by the following year, the wood will have "set" in that position, and you can actually remove the ties entirely.
Which trees like being "festooned"?
Not every tree is a fan of this treatment. Festooning fruit trees works best on "pome" fruits—basically apples and pears. These trees have the right kind of growth habit and flexibility to handle the bending.
Stone fruits, like plums and cherries, can be a little more temperamental. Their wood tends to be a bit more brittle, and they are prone to certain diseases if the bark gets damaged or if the air circulation isn't perfect. You can do it, but you have to be extra careful. If you're a beginner, I'd definitely suggest starting with an apple tree. They're pretty hardy and usually respond to festooning by throwing out a ton of fruit the next season.
Avoiding the common pitfalls
It's easy to get a little over-excited when you see how well this works, but there are a few things to watch out for. First off, don't bend every single branch on the tree. You still need some structural growth. If you turn the whole tree into a series of hoops, you might compromise its strength, especially if you live in an area with heavy snow or high winds.
Also, watch out for "water shoots." Sometimes, when you bend a branch down, the tree reacts by sending straight, vertical shoots popping up from the top of the curve. These are called epicormic sprouts, and they're basically the tree trying to get back to its vertical roots. You'll want to prune these off so they don't suck the energy away from the fruiting buds you're trying to encourage.
Lastly, don't leave the ties on forever. Once the branch stays in place on its own—usually after one full growing season—cut the strings. If you leave them for years, the bark will grow over the string, which can lead to rot or weaken the branch so much that it snaps under the weight of all that extra fruit you've grown.
Wrapping it up
At the end of the day, festooning fruit trees is one of those old-school gardening techniques that just works. It's low-cost, doesn't require any fancy power tools, and it makes you feel a bit more connected to the way your trees actually grow. Instead of just fighting against nature with a pair of loppers, you're kind of dancing with it, guiding the branches where you want them to go.
If you've got a stubborn tree that's all leaves and no action, give festooning a try this summer. It's a bit of work upfront, but when you're picking low-hanging, sun-ripened fruit next year without even needing a ladder, you'll be very glad you did. It's honestly one of the most satisfying "hacks" in the garden, turning a wild-looking sapling into a productive, beautiful part of your yard.