One of the most important tasks this month, is to check in on newly planted fruit trees. Check the soil beneath the mulch, and if its dry give it a lovely slow watering. Slow is best so the water soaks in, rather than running off. Top up the mulch if its thinning out. Simply lay card or newspaper on top of the grass/ weeds before dolloping on whatever mulch you have to hand. For deciduous fruit trees, lean more into dry/ woody products than greenery. Avocados and citrus appreciate a bit more green stuff in the brew.
Let the grass be long!
Pause before you rush in and clearfell all the grass/ weeds surrounding young trees. Long grasses provide a protective, useful canopy through hot months and an engaged network below the soil. Be sure trees are watered and well mulched at their base, then leave the long grass protection.
Summer prune espalier
Trim your espaliers as they shoot away. This quick summer prune keeps things fruitful. Go along each branch and reduce long upward shoots back to 2 – 3 buds. Here’s how to summer prune espalier.
Bird protection
Slinging birdnet over your fruit trees is the simplest, and most efficient way to protect your fruit from the birds. Good quality net is a worthy investment. For long lasting fabric that you can re-use for years to come, buy direct from the industry. Check out Redpath, Cosio Industries, Permathene, Advanced Landscape Supplies or who ever your local supplier is.
12m wide net is my fav size. One piece will cover the whole tree with enough slack to keep the trees nicely spread rather than scrunched up, and big nets are way easier to put on.
You don’t need a net for every single tree, just enough to cover the ones that are ripe at the same time. 3 or 4 usually is plenty. It’s a bit of a knack putting birdnet on, a source of marital tension that I can ease – find all my tips here.
Pluck foliage from fruiting vines
Snap excess foliage off grapevines and kiwifruits to bring light and air to ripening bunches of fruit. Extra airflow is especially important if they are in a greenhouse or on a porch, and extra light, if you live somewhere cool. Don’t go too hard, just enough.
Harvest plums
There’s a small window when fruit is ripe for the picking. With a plum, I reckon its just before it hits the ground. Pick your plums when the skin has that gorgeous dusky bloom on it and the slightest touch knocks them from the branch. I cup the fruit in my hand and wiggle my fingers – if they drop in my hand they’re perfectly ripe. Dare I say it: its more like fondling than picking. Here are all my plum harvest + storage tips.
A few extra fruity bits
- Feed citrus – an important feed this, especially for young trees. Eschew artificial fert and source direct from mother nature! While you are at, thin fruits – completely removing any that have set on young trees.
- Pluck fruits off 1 or 2 year old Avocado trees. It takes alot of carbs to produce flowers and new leaf buds – a big ask for a little tree. At the same time give it a feed. Let your young tree put its mojo into shoots and roots instead of fruits.
- Trim off strawberry runners – the shoots that stretch out from the mama plant, to keep your strawberry plants energised. You can of course pot these up and get new plants growing for next year.
Hi Kath,
I have a copy of your excellent pruning book. Just wondering how to adapt the pruning instructions for a double grafted plum tree.
Many thanks,
Jan
Hey Jan – do exactly the same except you’ll have two trunks up the middle. Retain one trunk for each variety, and fan out from there.
Hi Kath,
I live on a small suburban section in Hamilton. I love Blackboy peaches and would like to espalier one against our fence. Do you think this variety is too vigorous or is it possible?
Many Thanks
Marta
Rather than espalier go for a fan shape Marta – (lots of info on this online) rather than the espalier linear shape, as this better suits the vigor of stonefruit. I trust that the fence is on the south side of the fruit tree so as the sun shines on it all the day long. Have fun!
I’ve “googled” the Web to find info on : which are the best grape vine varieties to grow in Wellington NZ, ? sofar no info available? can any Wellington region gardeners help me out with this one please? Sam.
Hey Sam, here’s a few cool season grapes for you to check out – Schulyer, Niagara and E. A Robinson. Perhaps check in with local groups like transition towns or ooby or community orchards. Another good resource is our local grower – Edible Garden in Palmerston North. cheers Kath
Hi Kath, I thinned the apple and pear trees in our community orchard but several branches are very overloaded still and dragging on the ground. Should I just take more fruit off?
Hey Jacqui – yip I’d take more fruit off and have a go at propping the branches up as well. K
Thanks Kath, I really appreciate your advice!
Hi Kath
Thanks so much for your great newsletter & books 😊.
I have a problem with the young growing tips of my dwarf apples & pears. The new leaves are twisted & curled, then go brown & die off. The rest of the tree/s seem unaffected & have plenty of fruit. I can’t find any insects on the tips & wonder if it might be some nutrient lack? They get dolomite, have wood mulch around them & are sprayed several times a year (I try for monthly, but don’t always make it!) with fish/seaweed/em & neem. I give them 1/2 a bucket or so of water onto the root zone in hot/dry conditions.
I hope you can help, as I am espaliering them, but lack of new growth makes this a bit difficult!
Cheers, Jill
Have you uncurled the leaves Jill to see if there are any aphids or larvae or webbing?
Also I wonder why you are adding dolomite? If from the info off a soil test then good oh, but if not I’d stop doing that.
Are you checking the soil for moisture levels? Its great to water when things are dry but the thing is dwarf trees have shallow roots and so while they are young you really should be testing the soil weekly to see whether or not they need a soak.
If you have lots of fruit and not much foliage you need to remove the fruits – consider about 7 leaves per each fruit – otherwise your poor little trees will exhaust themselves!
More questions than answers!, this is best suited to a garden coach session. https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/services/video-consults/
all the best
K
Thanks Kath, yes I’ve unrolled plenty of leaves – no sign that I can find of any insects or any of their detritus.
Just a sprinkle of dolomite once or twice a year, as you often suggest in your newsletters.
The trees are about 7 years old, so although dwarf, are not really babies. Yes, I thin the fruit when necessary. And water weekly unless we have had decent rain. I have a moisture meter, but find it doesn’t really work very well.
Cheers, Jill
Dolomite is lime + magnesium which I dont advocate for unless you have had a soil test recommending it as an excess of either is going to send your soil out of whack. Gypsum however, I do recommend for fruit trees on clay soils so perhaps change to that for now.
I agree moisture meters are not reliable – not as great as testing with your finger at any rate!
Without seeing the trees Jill its impossible as there are so many things that could have gone on here.
Another option is to get a soil test and eliminate soil issues.
all the best
K
Thanks Kath, sorry I meant gypsum, not dolomite!
Awesome!
Hi Kath
Loving the monthly newsletter.
I am contemplating pruning our dwarf nectarine. It has finished fruiting and was very badly affected by rust. Would it still be ok to mulch the cuttings or should they be burnt/disposed of?
Hi David, much depends here.
Modern farming advises to burn but that’s because the environments are biologically lacking.
A strong biology bioremediates all pathogens – where your garden sits on this scale lies your answer.
there is no one size fits all in this new gardening paradigm.
Perhaps you have 100% faith in your gardens diversity and resilience and can chop the prunings and use them as mulch,
or perhaps you feel strongly that burning is the best way – go for it and reuse the ash
or perhaps you sit somewhere in the middle, chopping the prunings and mixing them with other twigs as the base of a compost pile – pathogens sorted!
These moments are where the juice of being a gardener happens!
Trust your gut – it will take you to the best place.
K x
Hi Kath
i have coddlibg moth again this season. My apples are not ready yet, some are falling off the trees. This year early i did the cardboard around the trunk with Vaseline, pheromone traps and molasses and vinegar to catch the female. Still attacked. i do eat around the apple damage when they are ripe. Now my question is can i throw the wormy bits in my compost or will those worms hibernate in there? The other part of these green apples i cook or cut up for my worm bin. Maybe i will never avoid coddling moth .
I don’t recommend composting them unless you have a really hot compost. Otherwise you risk resurgence.
Tricky codlings – it takes time and a few different strategies coming together to reduce populations.
Extra difficult if there is codling in your neighbourhood and no one else is doing anything about theres.
Heres 2 really useful, practical reads https://thisnzlife.co.nz/organic-methods-control-codling-moth/ and https://www.goodfruit.com/codling-moth-control-back-to-biology/
And heres the naturally neem home gardener codling pack https://www.naturallyneem.co.nz/product-page/armyworm-codlin-guava-moth-control-pack
K x