Planting and Caring

Planting and Caring for a New Tree

When you have decided on which kind of fruit tree you would like, and
where you would like it, you can finally start to plant it. If you buy
your tree from a nursery, be especially careful when you are taking it
from the nursery to your house. I once had a friend who put the tree in
the back of his truck, but clipped a sign on the way home. The entire tree
snapped in half, and my friend was left a very sad man.

When you have gotten your tree safely back to your yard, look at the
bottom of it and see how big the clump of roots is. It may seem like a lot
of work now, but you want to dig a hole that is twice as wide as the
clump, and just a little less deep. Making the hole slightly bigger than
the clump of roots allows there to be room for the soil that you dug out
to be put back in. Otherwise you would be stuck with a giant heap of
unwanted dirt, and nowhere to put it. After you have dug the hole, line
the hole with some compost or fertilizer so that the tree will grow
better. After you have done this you should set your fruit tree into the
hole, and spread the roots out evenly so that the tree will be strong and
stable. 

When all of this business is done, take the soil that you dug up and fill
in the hole completely. Unless you want big piles of dirt everywhere, you
should be sure you use all of the dirt even is it is a couple inches
higher than the rest of your yard. This is because it will compress when
watered. Before you firm up the soil, make sure that the tree is
completely vertical and will not fall over. After you have checked that
the tree is perfectly vertical you can gently firm up the soil. 

If the tree's trunk is not yet completely sturdy and can be bent, you need
to tie the tree to a stake with a bit of rope. Be sure not to tie the rope
tightly to the tree, as you need to allow room for the trunk to grow. Once
the tree is sturdy enough to withstand all types of weather, you can take
the stakes off of it. When all of this is done you should mulch around the
base of the tree. If you live in an area where wildlife can access your
yard, then you should put a fence around your tree, because some animals
will eat the bark off of young trees.

Once you have successfully planted your fruit tree it will start to bear
fruit after it is three to five years old. Once your tree starts to carry
a lot of fruit you should periodically pick some of the fruit so that the
branches aren't weighed down too much. If the fruit gets too thick, the
branches can break off. On some years your tree might not bear as much
fruit as others, but this should not worry you. Healthy trees often take
years on “vacation” where they produce little or no fruit.

After you've planted your tree you might start to have some problems with
pests. To help keep these pests away, always rake away old leaves, brush,
or any other decaying matter that could be holding bugs that could be
harmful to your tree.

To make sure that your tree always stays healthy in the long run, you
should prune it during winter or spring. Water your tree every two weeks
during dry times, and be sure not to hit your tree with a lawn mower or a
weed eater because it could severely damage the growth process. Also just
make sure that your tree gets plenty of water and plenty of sun, and your
growing experience should be just great.

Maintaining a Healthy Young Tree

Making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is very important, but not as hard as some might think. There are several vital things you need to do: don't harvest all of the fruit on the tree at the same time; make sure the soil is healthy; watch out for pests; plant it correctly; be sure it is protected when it is young. I will expand on all of these things. 

One way to ensure that your fruit tree will remain healthy is to never harvest all of the fruit at the same time. If all of the fruit is left on the tree, it will grow to an unbearable weight. The combined weight of all of the fruit can get very heavy and snap the branches. So once the fruit starts to grow, you should always pick some of them before they are completely ready. Even if you don't want to pick the fruit before it is ready, it will be beneficial to your tree. While you should do this to prevent it from becoming too heavy, you should also never over-harvest. This can be equally damaging.

Another part of making sure that your fruit tree stays healthy is planting it in fertile soil. If you plant anything in soil that doesn't have the proper amount of nutrients in it, it will not grow and flourish as I am sure you would like it to. You also have to be sure that you plant the right tree in the right kind of soil, because some types of fruit trees do better in drier soil while some kinds or trees do better in damp soil. Just look up what kinds of nutrients your desired tree requires and you’ll know for sure whether to plant it or modify your soil in any way.

Another way to ensure your fruit tree's health is to watch out for pests. To help keep the pests away from your tree, try to eliminate places by your tree that pests might be living. Always look for old piles of brush, weeds, old leaves, or any other decaying matter where pests could be hiding. Another way to keep pests away is by using bug sprays and repellents. Also, regularly turn over a little bit of soil around your tree and look for pests that could be hiding underground. Sometimes the ones that are hidden out of sight can be the most harmful.

If you don't plant your fruit tree correctly, it could end up being very unhealthy. So to avoid this, always look for instructions before you plant trees. When you are planting a tree, make sure that your tree is perfectly vertical, so it won’t grow to be pointing off in an abnormal direction. When you are planting a tree you should also spread out the roots so that the tree will always be stable. This will help it live longer since the maximum water intake will be optimized. 

The final thing to do in keeping your fruit tree healthy is to keep it protected when it is young and fragile. When you have a young tree you should tie it to a stake to help it to survive strong winds. Don't tie it too hard, you should always allow room for the tree trunk to grow. Another thing to do when it is young is to put a small fence around it. This can help keep it safe from animals that will eat its bark if given the chance. A fence will also help to guard the base against strong wind and other weather.

If you follow all of this advice during the early years of your tree, you should have an experience that is nothing but joyful. Hopefully you’ll learn from the mistakes of others, and take great care of your tree. Just remember to always look up information on the type of tree you have, so that you can find out what exactly it requires.

How to Safely Spray Pesticide

If you want to protect your fruit tree from pests during the summer, this is almost impossible to accomplish without the use of pesticides or chemicals. This might scare some people into thinking that the actual fruits will contain traces of the chemicals. If you do things correctly, you can get rid of all the pests and not infect the actual tree. If you’re going to be spraying chemicals, you most likely will be using either a handheld pump or a hose-end sprayer.

If you’re using the pump sprayers, you will be able to more accurately determine the mixing of the chemicals. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to spray it very far. Usually it won’t reach the tops of trees. This can be achieved with the hose end sprayers, but getting the correct mix of chemicals is quite a challenge. It all depends on your water pressure to get the correct mixture of chemicals, but water pressure is not constant. One day it might be lower, in which case your chemical content would be higher. The types of materials you buy for hose application are generally in an extremely strong form. They need to be severely diluted before they are weak enough to apply.

When you are mixing the chemicals for spraying, you need to follow the directions exactly. You are dealing with dangerous chemicals, so its best to do exactly what the professionals recommend and wear the proper protective gear. When you’re dealing with chemicals like this, you should always wear rubber gloves. Use the exact portions indicated on the label. Estimation won’t work in this case, and you could end up killing your tree or not killing any bugs. You should usually start by putting in the proper amount of pesticide, and then top it off with all the water.

Now comes the spraying. The goal is to spray the same amount over all the areas. You still don’t want to spray so much that enough builds up to drip off of the leaves. Usually you will want to get a ladder so that you can get within spraying distance of all the portions of the tree. Apply the pesticide in even, full sweeps as to hit every piece. Never go over the same part twice, because that is when you start to drip.

If you’re dealing with a large and well developed tree, you should stand on a ladder under the base of the trunk. Spray all segments from the inside towards the outside. After you are done spraying the outer canopy, you’re ready to get out from under there and work on the rest. Once you are done cleaning, be sure to fully and thoroughly clean off every bit of equipment you used, including your clothes. Don’t include the clothes you wore while spraying in the rest of your family’s laundry.

While you’re spraying for pests, the main thing to keep in mind is to avoid dripping onto the ground. When this happens, the pesticides will be absorbed by the roots of the tree and be transported to the actual fruits on the trees. As long as the pesticides stay on the outside and you wash your fruit thoroughly before you eat it, you will have nothing to worry about as far as being poisoned goes.

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.