Wondering how to care for fruit trees for a better harvest? Maybe you’ve tried growing your own fruit but we’re disappointed by the results? We’re going to be sharing all of our best tips for a better harvest this season.
Orchard care is always the first of the spring chores we begin to tackle, over the years we’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to getting a good harvest. A lot of figuring out what will work for your orchard is trial and error, but these basics will work for almost every orchard.
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How To Care For Fruit Trees: What To Do For A Better Harvest
How To Care For Fruit Trees: Pruning Fruit Trees
The first thing you should know when learning how to care for fruit trees is how to prune them. Pruning your fruit trees will help the overall health of your tree and promote better fruit. Pruning fruit trees is necessary to create an open framework, that allows sunlight in the wind to get in to dry out the branches after a rain (this is important when you live in a place where it gets very humid in the summer).
You’ll also want to remove any dead branches, limbs pointing directly at the ground, limbs that cross each other and suckers from the trunk of your fruit trees.
Related article: How To Prune Fruit Trees
How To Care For Fruit Trees: Fruit Tree Sprays
Another thing you should get to know when learning how to care for fruit trees is fruit tree sprays. One of the spring orchard care tasks every fruit grower should tackle is spraying your fruit trees, this will your trees up for a successful harvest.
The best time to spray your fruit trees is late winter and early spring, with dormant oil or dormant spray. This will help to protect your trees from overwintering pests, larvae and eggs, and protect your fruit later in the season. It’s best to begin spraying before your trees bud and then reapply every 7-10 days.
Related article: How To Make Your Own Dormant Sprays
How To Care For Fruit Trees: Fertilizing Fruit Trees
One of the biggest things you need to know when planning how to take care of fruit trees is fruit tree fertilizer. We grow strictly organic here at the Cottage, so we go with organic composted manure as our fertilizer of choice. If your soil has adequate nitrogen, give your mature trees 70 LBS of manure under the canopy.
If your soil is low in nitrogen apply somewhere between 140-280 LBS. If you are using a highly concentrated type of manure such as rabbit the amount you use can be cut in half. Make sure you are using dry COMPOSTED manure, fresh manure will be hot and can burn the tree.
How To Care For Fruit Trees: Thinning Fruit
The last really important thing you need to know when it comes to how to care for fruit trees is thinning your fruit. Thinning the fruit from your trees during the growing season is a great way to get a better harvest. How far you thin the fruit on each kind of fruit tree is going to vary so do your research and don’t treat them all the same.
Caring For Fruit Trees For The Best Harvest
Whether you just want to experiment with growing fruit or want to be a homesteader we hoped we’ve answered all your questions on how to care for fruit trees. Growing your own food is really rewarding, while at the same time being a lot of work- but armed with some knowledge you can prepare for a good harvest and protect your trees from bugs and disease.
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