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Fall Fruit Tree Care: An Ounce of Prevention

With its cooler days and longer nights autumn is the season to enjoy the fruits of your labors, literally. It is also the time to take steps to ensure that next year will prove to be as productive if not more so. As grandma used to say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This should become your mantra when caring for your fruit trees through the colder months.

Regular maintenance and cleanup can go a long way in preventing springtime disease issues. Raking up fallen leaves and fruit can eliminate fungal spores and pests that would over winter in leaf litter at the bases of tree trunks. Be sure to discard any infected leaves or fruit and not compost them at home. (They are okay to be sent with other yard waste for commercial composting: that’s maintained at temperatures that kill the spores and pests.)

Pests such as apple maggot or codling moth spend their winter below ground after burrowing out of fruit and dropping to the ground beneath. By applying beneficial nematodes to the soil surrounding your fruit trees in late September you can minimize the number of flies and moths that will hatch out next spring to plague your apples and pears. Spraying with dormant oil to smother any other over wintering insects or their eggs can be carried out at any time during the winter months. It is often used in conjunction with copper fungicide starting in late December to prevent peach leaf curl, brown rot, and shot hole fungus in stone fruits. Sulfur fungicides should not be mixed with spray oil.

Just as important in the fall as it was during the hot summer months, regular water during dry periods will ensure that your trees stay healthy. November is also an excellent time to apply organic fertilizer and mulch to fruit trees. Nutrients will work into the soil throughout the winter and be available to the tree in time for spring blooms and growth.

Pruning your fruit trees can be reserved for late winter (late January to early February). A helpful way to remember which trees to prune when goes like this: first to bloom, last to prune. So prune pears and apples first and leave the plums and peaches for last. On apples and pears, remove up to one third of the previous summer’s growth. With the more vigorous stone fruit you can remove up to two thirds of the new growth.

A little care during the winter months will ensure that your fruit trees remain healthy through the growing season and productive for years to come.

By Brian Mumm
Skylights Autumn 2008, Vol 23, No. 3

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