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Fruit Tree CareWhen summer ends, your fruit trees need some loving care. Find out how the fruits of your labor will pay off next year. |
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Transcript: Fruit Tree Care
Even though it’s the end of summer and we may forget about our fruit trees with harvest being over, now is a very important time when it comes to taking care of the trees for next year’s crop.You see, down here in the branches, actually where the leaves attach, are tiny buds. And those are forming into flower buds during July and August, the late summer part of the year. If the tree goes through stress in mid to late summer, it will affect the quality and quantity of next year’s crop. Peaches will even produce double fruit or no fruit at all if they go through stress during the late summer months.
We want to do things to prevent that kind of stress. First of all, the tree needs adequate moisture. It always doesn’t rain enough for us, so we have to give them an adequate soaking. That’s a good deep soaking about once a week. Weeds and grass are the number one competitors, so you want to make sure and have a weed-free area extending out as far as you can from the trunk. Ideally out to the outer branch spread. And then you can place some type of organic mulch over the surface to help hold moisture.
The other thing we want to keep in mind is light. It takes good sunlight in order to get good fruit quality. We want to keep the inside of the tree open. Trees tend to grow these water sprouts and suckers which really are just vigorous upright wood. On peaches they’re often blonde in color. They won’t have much fruit on them, if any at all next year, but what they will do is shade out the other branches on the interior of the tree that could bare fruit. So all through the summer months, you want to be coming in and cutting these off where they attach to the main branches.
So adequate moisture, control weeds, mulch well, give them a good soaking, and trim out the water sprouts that shade out the tree and you’ll set yourself up for a good crop of fruit next spring.
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Last Updated:
July 6, 2006