Caring Properly for your Fruit Tree
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 any disease or pestilence. Therefore it is vital
that you understand how to care for trees in a way that will ensure
their immediate success as well as future good health.
During the first stages of the tree’s life, the roots, trunk, and
branches have not yet fully developed to a self supporting strength.
Therefore if your tree is growing fruits, occasionally the combined
weight is enough to snap off an entire branch. If this is the case,
you should provide external support for your branches – prop them up
with boards, or tie them to something at a higher altitude. As long
as you can provide your tree the 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 necessary for the tree to survive longer than
one season. The exact specifications vary with the area, climate,
and type of tree, but I’ve found that there is no better source than
a nursery employee. Maybe they’re just eager to sell you the right
type of fertilizer, but in my experience they are almost never
wrong. Just inform them about the conditions your tree is living in
and how healthy it is looking, and they should be able to help you
find something to improve the state of your tree.
Lots of people think that the only way to ensure a tree’s
healthiness 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 the best it
will have a negative effect on the taste of the fruit. But at worst,
your entire tree could die and prevent you from ever growing fruit
in the future. So do not ever try to solve your problems by giving
it lots of water! Solve your tree’s health problems at the root, so
to speak. Go to where the problem originates from, and fix that.
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
the 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 of the fruit on the ground that is bound to fall. 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. 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 do all these things, and you will
have a great tree that produces delicious fruits.
