Hi everyone! Congratulations on investing in a new fruit tree. Fruit trees are a blessing. With just a bit of skilled hands-on care they can give you plenty of delicious organic fruit for years to come. I’m Susan Poizner, an urban orchard is from Toronto Canada and over the years I’ve learned that how we care for our trees when they’re young will determine their success and productivity in the long term.
So I’ve made this little video to share some fruit tree care secrets with you. My goal is to help you save time and money so you can grow fruit trees successfully right from the start.
So let’s get started. Are you ready for secret number one? Secret number one: fruit tree pruning starts when your tree is small.
Pruning is a key part of fruit tree care and correct fruit tree pruning is a beautiful skill to learn. But why is it important? Well, all of us have seen overgrown and poorly cared for fruit trees they have poor air circulation so they’re a breeding ground for pests and disease and the fruit can be poor quality if your tree doesn’t have enough energy to do all the tasks it has to do – like expanding its root system, powering branch growth and promoting the growth of sweet large fruit. So our goal in pruning our fruit trees is to create a beautiful open structure for our trees that will support a great harvest and help promote the health and vigour of our trees.
And all this starts when your tree is very young and its branches are soft and flexible.
That’s especially true when you’ve purchased a year old bare-root tree. It’s also known as a whip and you get them from specialist fruit tree nurseries. These are fantastic trees. They grow fast and they adopt well to their new conditions but to get them started your job is to plant them carefully and then perform your very first pruning cut by pruning off up to one third of the tree. Many orchardists cut their whips to just 36 inches high.
Why do we do this? Well, here is your young fruit tree whip. You’re going to cut just above a bud that means that when your fruit tree starts to grow in the spring there’ll be more energy to power growth in the few remaining buds. What will happen next is that your tree will grow vigorously in the following months there’ll be lots of side shoots and lots of choice for pruning and structuring your tree in the following year.
Now a few cautions.
Pruning a simple fruit tree whip with very few side branches is really that simple but if you’ve bought an older tree with a few branches and an interesting shape there may be some other strategies to learn more about that later. And if you’ve purchased a potted tree you might want to wait for a year until you actually prune your tree. Potted trees are older and take longer to adapt to their new environment. A harsh whip cut would stress them out and that would not be a good thing. Okay are you ready for secret number two secret number two?
Fruit trees need irrigation. Now lots of people think fruit trees can fend for themselves but in fact they need irrigation especially when they’re young and just establishing themselves. So you’ll water your tree deeply and slowly on the very day you plant it then monitor your tree and water it again deeply when it dries out. How often you water depends on your climate and your soil so you may water twice a week or twice a month depending on rainfall and other factors.
Secret number three: remove the baby fruit for the first two years.
Now I know that when you plant your tree you are super keen to taste the fruit but if you’re interested in the long-term health and productivity of your trees it’s important that you remove any baby fruit for the first two years after planting. I know it’s heartbreaking but young trees have only a limited amount of energy and so what we want to do is to encourage our trees to invest their energy in expanding their root system and in developing strong and sturdy branches. Also if you allow young trees to fruit that fruit will stress the tree and can even break their tender young branches. Remove the fruit early on and your tree will thank you later by offering you bigger sweeter and better harvest. So those are just a few easy ways that you can get started growing fruit to successfully but if you learn just one thing from this video it’s that now that you’ve bought your tree it’s ultimate growing success is in your hands.
If you do want to learn more there’s lots more that I would love to teach you like how to prune fruit trees of all shapes ages and sizes how to optimize tree health and various different ways to protect your trees from pests and disease.
So check out my website at Orchard people.com where you can watch free videos and great blogs about growing fruit trees. You can also tune into my life radio show and podcast to learn from the experts about all aspects of fruit tree care. And if you’re ready to learn more you can order my book or you can check out my online certificate in beginner fruit tree care where in just eight hours – including fun and informative videos interactive quizzes and information-packed ebooks – you can learn how to keep your tree healthy and productive for years to come.
Thanks for checking out this video and enjoy your new fruit tree. Happy growing from orchard people.com..
Read More: How to Care for Newly Planted Trees