Young Fruit Trees-Proper Care

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.

Proper nutrition is not only necessary for the production of healthy fruits, but is also essential to a young fruit tree’s surving longer than one season. The exact nutrient specifications vary with location, climate, and tree variety, but as a general rule local nurseries will have good information for your area. Just let them know about the growing conditions of your tree and if it appears to be healthy or not, and they should be able to help you.

Lots of people think that the only way to ensure a tree’s health is to provide it insane amounts of water. This is not the case at all. As a matter of fact, giving too much water to a tree can be more harmful than making it go thirsty. At best it will have a negative effect on the taste of the fruit. But your entire tree could actually. Get help and advice from professionals to not only save your young fruit tree, but it may very well save you money in the long run.

If it is too late and you’re already starting to see unhealthy branches that look either diseased or damaged, you should always remove them. If the tree is wasting nutrients by sending them out to a branch that cannot be saved, it is practically throwing away all the nutrients that it could use on the other, healthier branches. As soon as you start to see a branch that is deteriorating or becoming unhealthy, chop it off right away. At the very least, trim down the unhealthy part but leave all the segments that still look like they could continue growing.

Once your tree has started to enter the picking stage, never leave any fallen fruit on the ground. Also, be careful to get every piece off of the tree. Even if it is an ugly looking fruit that you don’t want to keep, you should still pick it and throw it away… or offer it to birds. Once these fruits begin to rot, they provide a perfect home for unwanted insects or diseases that can transfer to the tree itself. So always remember to rake up these fallen fruits, and prevent yourself a lot of future grief.

Getting a fruit tree and caring for it throughout its life can be a daunting task. It may even seem impossible sometimes to keep track of all the factors that make a tree healthy. But if you just pay attention to the nutrients that your tree needs, you should be on a good path. In addition to nutrients, figure out the precise amount of watering that you should be doing to keep your tree’s thirst quenched without drowning it. Just follow the advice of professionals, and you should have a great tree that produces delicious fruits.

Do any of you have other solutions? Let us hear from you…

Image couresy of… © Constantin Opris | Dreamstime.com