Maintaining Healthy Young Fruit Trees

Ah... The fruits of your labor!

Making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is very important, but not as hard as you might think. There are, however, some vital things you need to do:

Plant your  young fruit tree correctly… Ask a local nursery for planting instructions, or do an internet search… just be sure the instructions are specific to your fruit tree. But, here are some “rule of thumb” instructions:

• All trees should be planted perfectly vertical so they develop a strong structure.
• Also, the roots should be spread out to ensure stabily and maximum water intake.
• Another part of making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is planting it in fertile soil.
• You also have to be sure that the soil suits your tree variety (dry or damp soil, sandy or clay soil, etc) Read more

How to Grow Larger Sized Fruit

Pick large, juicy fruit from your own fruit trees...

New fruit tree growers are always shocked at how small their fruit is compared to what they’re used to seeing at the grocery store. While smaller fruits might be what nature originally intended, it is possible to attain larger fruits without any genetic altering or added chemicals.

On almost any tree, the success of each individual fruit depends on spacing. Usually in the early stages of fruit production, veteran growers do something called “fruit thinning”. they remove nearly a third of the emerging crop. Generally, there should not be any fruits within six to eight inches of each other. During the fruit thinning process, this is the distance you should generally aim for to optimize the amount of nutrition that each fruit gets. Hundreds of little fruits on one tree competing for the available materials necessary for growth just results in stunted fruits. The resulting crop is fewer in number, but larger in size and better in quality. Read more

Young Fruit Trees-Proper Care

Young fruit tree's first harvest...

If you have just recently planted a new fruit tree, I think it is safe to assume you are not yet an expert on the subject. More fruit trees die in their beginning years due to poor care habits than to disease or pestilence. Therefore it is vital that you know how to care for trees properly.

During the first stages of the tree’s life, the roots, trunk, and branches are not yet fully developed and cannot support much weight.  Unfortunately, entire branches can snap off under the weight of the fruit.

Provide external support for young fruit tree branches – prop them up with boards, or tie them to something at a higher altitude. As long as you can provide support it needs in these early years, it should grow to be independent in no time at all. Read more