Bare-Root Fruit Trees

Have you been thinking about planting some fruit trees? Now is a good time to buy and plant them! The nurseries and other stores have good supplies of bare-root fruit trees, plus bare-root berries (which includes blueberries), and grapes. Other plants you might consider for your vegetable garden are asparagus and artichokes. If you want fruits and vegetables that you can preserve (canned, frozen or dried) remember to read the tags on the plants before you buy them, as some fruit will go to mush if canned or frozen. Last year I bought 10 dwarf fruit trees and all but one is good for canning and freezing. I bought a Gala Apple tree just because I love the taste of the apples! Sometime I will give it a try to see if Gala actually cans satisfactorily or not--you never know.

Once planted you will have many years of more fresh fruit than you can possible eat, even if you have dwarf trees. Ideally, I would love to have fruit trees that ripen at different times, so I will have a supply of fresh tree-ripened fruit most of the year. I start with my Navel orange in December, which goes through January or longer. Next, my tangerine is good February through March. I have a little break until my Valencia orange is ready in May, and is good until sometime in August. In the mean time, I will have apricots, plums, and peaches early summer through late summer; and apples and pears towards fall. I have become a fruit snob and refuse to buy fruit in the markets (they have no taste generally), except apples. I have canned a lot of pears and peaches, so not buying fruit isn't a problem for me and my husband. OK, I do buy a banana or two occasionally! Oh, and I buy strawberries and boysenberries each May from the road-side stands to make jam and to freeze.

My To-Do List . . .

We have a nice few days, where the temperature is suppose to be below 90', then it's back up to about 97'. The past two nights have been nice and cool, too--great sleeping weather! I haven't been planting any seeds because I am going to be in Idaho for a week and I didn't want to burden my husband with taking care of seedlings while I am gone--it's going to be hard enough for him to keep up with the watering of my producing vegetables! He is not a gardener, doesn't enjoy anything about gardening, but he is a good sport!

--water
--weed
--now is the time for the last summer pruning of dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees, cutting back half of the newest growth. This is also the time to trim the top any fruit trees you might want to bring back down to easier picking height. DO NOT TOP LANDSCAPE TREES!!! Fruit trees are not landscape trees--fruit trees are pruned for production. Do not remove much each year, only the new growth. If you drastically cut back your fruit trees, the result will be the same as landscape trees. This is what will happen if you top landscape trees:

"Topping won't work to keep trees small. After a deciduous tree is topped, its growth rate increases. It grows back rapidly in an attempt to replace its missing leaf area. It needs all of its leaves so that it can manufacture food for the trunk and roots. It won't slow down until it reaches about the same size it was before it was topped. It takes at maximum a few years before your tree returns to near its original size.

An exception to the grow-back-to-size rule comes if you damage a tree's health so it hasn't the strength to re-establish itself. It is, in effect, dying and will continue on a downward spiral for years. Topping can't make a significant size difference-not for long. The species or type of tree you have determines its size. A dogwood or Japanese maple may grow from 10 to 30 feet in its life, an oak or an ash from 10 to 90 feet. You can't "stop" trees with topping. If you succeed, you have killed them."

[From: Plant Amnesty]

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Planting by the stars:

Monday-Tuesday: Pisces–2nd best planting root crops; #1 planting above ground crops and transplanting above ground crops, trees, bushes, vines; good to weed
Wednesday-Thursday: Aries–very good planting root crops; not good planting above ground crops or transplants
Friday-Saturday: Taurus–#1 planting root crops; not good planting above ground crops; good for all transplants
Sunday-Monday: Gemini–2nd best planting root crops, above ground crops, and transplants

Garden Tips

Don't transplant now. Transplanting plants and trees stress them. When the heat is turned up, like it is now, stresses established plants and trees. Transplanting now will be a double-whammy and could cause problems with the health of trees, and could cause plants to die. If possible, don't transplant anything now through July (except irises). If you really don't have a choice, be sure to provide some shade for the new transplant, at least for a few days. Direct seeding does work well now, as long as the soil is kept moist. The seeds will germinate quickly in the summer heat.

Make sure that you keep dropped fruit picked up to keep your fruit trees healthy.

June Fruit Drop

If you have fruit trees that have fruit, you may have noticed green fruit littering the ground under the trees. This is normal and is called June fruit drop (because it generally happens in early June!). Fruit trees have a natural tendency to shed some of their immature fruits. Fruit trees often set more flowers than they need for a full crop, to offset sudden loses from weather or other cultural factors. According to Perdue University Consumer Horticulture, "Only one bloom in 20 is needed for a good crop on a full-blossoming apple tree.

The reason fruit trees set fruit is so they can produce seed. If the crop is too large, it will strain the tree's resources and result in smaller fruits, possible of lesser quality. So the tree protects itself and its seed by thinning the crop, once it senses weather and growing conditions are stable. The immature fruits are all competing for the same food and water, and the strongest will survive. Fruits that contain the fewest or weakest seeds are the first to drop.

My peach, tangerine, almond and orange trees (the only ones fruiting at this time) have all dropped a few green fruits. Make sure to clean them up in case they are harboring bugs or diseases.

Fruit Trees

This year I planted several semi-dwarf fruit trees, specifically the kinds that can (preserve) well. These trees can grow up to 12'+ if not kept in check! In this photo you can see my "semi-dwarf" almond tree in the center of the back corner of my back yard---it's huge! Next to it are a semi-dwarf navel orange tree and a semi-dwarf tangerine tree, both of which have gotten a little too tall, too! I will have to whittle them down to size pretty soon. To keep semi-dwarf (or even dwarf) fruit trees a manageable height, start them off right by diligent pruning. I know, it's hard to cut off their brand new little limbs, but later you will be happier for it.
Above, you will see one of my new apricot trees and I will show you that it will survive a pruning. Cut back new growth on fruit trees by half. (Apricots may need to be cut back 3-4 times during the summer---they are very vigorous!). Below, you will see the same tree after I pruned it. Doesn't it look better?!

Also, any newly planted (this spring) fruit trees that have fruit on them need to have that fruit removed. That way all of the tree's energy will be focused on growth instead of fruit making. The trees will be stronger, healthier, and better able to produce more fruit next year.

If you have any fruit trees that are past their first year, you need to make sure their fruit has been thinned. I know, this is hard, too. We want all of the fruit possible, forget about thinning, and then have to deal with small fruit, and broken branches from the weight of the excess fruit. Fruit needs to be thinned so that there is 4-6" between each piece of fruit. There are a certain number of leaves that feed each piece of fruit and if there are too many fruits, the tree may come under stress and suffer for it. Stressed trees are an easier target for pests and diseases, and we don't want to have to deal with that!