Growing Fruit Tree

Caring Properly for your Fruit Tree

If you have just recently planted a new fruits tree, I believe it is safe to assume you are not yet an expert on the topic. Much more fruit trees die in their beginning many 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 good results as well as future good health.

While in 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 developing fruits, occasionally the combined weight is enough to snap off an entire department. If this is the case, you should provide external help support for your branches - prop them up with boards, or tie them to something at a bigger 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 precious time at all.

Proper nutrition is not only necessary for the production of healthful 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 feel 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 and fitness 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 up 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 began 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 convert to the tree itself. So always remember to rake up these fallen fruits, and prevent yourself a lot of future grief.

Becoming 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 excellent tree that produces delicious fruits.

Dealing with Barren Trees

Just one of the most frustrating things that can possibly happen to someone who has slaved for hours and hours in growing a fruit tree is the unexplainable barrenness that can sometimes occur when there should be a plethora of fresh fruit. I know this from experience. My neighbors all consider me the gardening guru because of my extensive knowledge. But this is only because gardening has been my passion for years and years, and like a sponge I have accumulated so much information in my mind. My learning has also come from past experiences with failure. For about 5 years after I started planting fruit trees, I did not see a single fruit for all my labor. I was nearly ready to give up, until I met who I think is truly the master of gardening.

I was in the gardening store, looking for many sort of new fertilizer to put my hope in for my quest to obtain fruit. I don’t know if there was a look of desperation in my eyes, but a kindly old man came up and started speaking with me. He introduced himself as Ralph, and for some reason I opened up to him and told him about all of my difficulties. I’ve never been the type to spill all my problems on anyone who asks, but Ralph seemed like such a nice fellow that I just couldn’t help it. And I’m glad I did, because what he taught me truly helped me to get my fruit trees in gear and start off producing.

I learned that generally, the inability to produce could be caused by a number of factors. Sometimes the tree is simply too young; If your tree is less than four years old, you shouldn’t exactly expect it to be producing yet. If it has reached 4 years and you still have seen no sign of fruit, then you should start to consider other factors that might be causing the infertility.

If the tree is going through any type of water stress (this can be poor drainage, too much water, or too little water), then it will have trouble growing. If you suspect this is the case, you should evaluate your own watering techniques and compare them with the needs of the tree to see if you are causing water stress. Also always be on the lookout for any diseases or pest damages. If your tree is constantly being molested by all kinds of little creatures, then you can’t expect it to be lively enough to produce fruits. 

If your tree blooms but still does not produce any fruit, this could be because of cold temperatures during the bloom. The coldness damaged the flower bud or damaged the baby fruit. Aesthetically the tree may look fine, but the inside could be damaged beyond any hope of ever seeing fruit. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do in this case except for wait until next 12 months and hope that it does not happen again.

If the tree’s pollination process has not been fully finished, it could have troubles growing fruit. If you planted different varieties, you may find that the requirements are different than you had originally thought and they were incompatible. In this case you need to replant the proper combinations.

Once I evaluated the conditions of my tree and everything that has occurred in its lifestyle, I realized that not only had I cross pollinated slightly incorrectly, but I was also giving my tree too much water. After I fixed these problems, I had learned my lesson and I haven’t had any trouble bearing fruit since then.

So if you are struggling with a plant that's not being cooperative, you should consult an expert gardener. If you can find a gardening mentor like mine that is willing to teach you everything they know, then you should be able to get your garden on the correct track with no problems.

Dealing with Bird Problems

When you are lucky enough to have a cherry tree in your yard, I'm sure I do not need to tell you how much enjoyment can come from them. Just eating the delicious cherries that spawned from your tree is a rewarding experience in itself. Looking out your back window and seeing a magnificent, glorious cherry tree is also rewarding. Most people are impressed just by the fact that you have a cherry tree, because they are usually thought of by non-gardeners as many sort of exotic plant.

But along with the joys that a cherry tree can provide, there are many annoyances. They seem to attract more unwanted creatures than any other plant in the world. Almost every day it seems like there is a new type of pestilence swarming the tree, trying to get a nibble of its delicious fruits. I can not say I blame them, but if they want to eat delicious fruit then they should grow their own trees.

One of the main and most constant issues that most people deal with is birds eating the fruit off the tree. It can seem almost impossible to get rid of this pest. After all, they can come in from any angle and make a quick getaway with the cherries. Or they can sit undetected in the branches and munch away all day. A bird certainly has its versatility on its side. Those little guys can be a real hassle to catch or repel. However, there are several different ways you can deter the birds from your home.

The most used way of repelling birds is to location a plastic owl within the vicinity of the home. If you find any animal that usually eats birds and purchase a plastic version, usually real birds will be instinctual enough to avoid it. These can include snakes, owls hawks, or scarecrows (OK, maybe they do not eat birds normally. But they sure scare the birds for some reason). Most of the time you can purchase these at your local gardening store. If you want a different version or a more lifelike representation, if you look online then you’re sure to find something that will job.

If you get a plastic animal of some sort, usually it will cure the bird issue for a while. However, some birds are just really brave (or really stupid) and will continue to eat from your tree. Almost any reflective surface or noisy object will prevent the birds from coming too close. I personally like to use reflective tape designed for scaring birds. You can purchase this at any gardening store. I usually use this in combination with a large assortment of wind chimes for highest scaring. Once you have a plastic animal along with reflective items and noisy products, almost all birds will be too terrified to even go close up.

While airborne creatures might get a little more than their share of fruit, you should still consider leaving one tree exclusively for them. While they might seem like a pest sometimes, birds can be the one thing that livens up your garden. If you’re used to having birds and then all of a sudden you’ve scared them all away, you will feel like there is something missing from your yard. Something that, on the inside, you truly liked all along.