|
From LDN's Fall Home Improvement
Magazine
Getting your fruit trees and orchard ready for
winter
Send a link to a friend
[September 30, 2013]
The apples and pears are just getting ready to pick when
you should begin the maintenance on your fruit trees and orchard.
Peaches and plums finished in the first part of August in this area.
Those trees had fantastic production because of the rainfall we had
earlier this year. |
 Healthy fruit trees have a natural cycle of producing heavy fruit
one year and then light fruiting the following year. Maybe it's
because they wore themselves out and need a rest. The best way to
have good, even production from year to year is to prune your fruit
trees each fall. It has been shown that pruning them back as much as
one-third causes the trees to have even, heavy fruiting. That
pruning allows the tree to remain solid to support its heavy fruit
without breaking limbs, and it helps the fruiting area to remain
within reach. Pruning can begin anytime after the tree has finished
producing fruit.Fall is a good time to carefully trim the weeds
from around the base of the fruit tree and apply a new plastic wrap
to guard the trunk of the tree, to prevent field mice and larger
vermin from making a nest at the base and snacking on the fruit
tree's succulent bark during the winter.
For the same reason, clean up and clear away any fallen fruit
from around the tree and orchard. Even though the fallen fruit is
not appealing to you to eat, it is a treasure to pests, vermin and
rodents. Raking up the fallen leaves from around apple trees can
help prevent scale pests.
Fertilizer low in nitrogen can be dropped or dug in around the
drip line of the fruit tree to facilitate spring growth. Keep the
amounts low so that the fertilizers aid in growth without burning
off fine roots.
Check the level of soil moisture. If the soil is too dry,
freezing can have a greater effect on fruit trees. Soaking the soil
area around the base out to the drip line can help the fruit tree
better survive a harsh winter.
[to top of second
column] |
If the daily temperature has dropped below 90 degrees, dormant
oil spray can be used to protect the trees from insect pests. Prior
to the killing frost, many varieties of fruit trees become infested
with spider mites, whitefly and scale insects. Dormant oil spray is
made of paraffinic oil and does not contain any poisons. The oil
causes the insect pests to stop breathing and also coats the tree
with a layer of oily protection. The oil may cause the leaves of the
fruit trees to turn and fall prematurely, so use it on apples and
pears after the fruit crop is done. Most dormant oil sprays
recommend that you wait until the tree is fully dormant before
application, but if the whitefly or aphid infestation is severe,
then it may be time to use another fruit tree-friendly pesticide to
control the pests. Read the label and follow the instructions
carefully.
Finally, one of the pests that attack apple trees is cedar apple
rust. This causes spots on apple leaves and the fruit and causes the
leaves to fall prematurely. Cedar apple rust can be controlled by
making sure there are no cedar trees within 150-200 feet of apple
trees. This includes junipers, phitzers and other columnar cedars.
Early fall elimination of these cedars, where the cedar apple rust
overwinters, will break the cycle of cedar apple rust.
[By JIM YOUNGQUIST]
|
