July’s Fruit Tree To-Do List

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loosing leaves july

July is busy old month in the orchard calendar – we’re planting, pruning and most important of all, assessing new growth to decide whether or not to add compost.

Plant

Fennel and dahlias and comfrey growing beneath an appleath fruit trees
Fennel is an awesome tap root companion in the orchard, enticing many beneficial insects with its sweet nectar.

Winter is your once-a-year opportunity – seize the day to plant deciduous trees in their preferred moment, to plant shelter, and to overall beautify and diversify.

Shelter. Keep strong, cold or salty winds from your fruit trees! Here’s my step by step guide + fav shelter plants. While you’re in shelter mode check in with existing plantings as to whether they are doing a good job or not. If the wind still whistles through, plug the gap.

Plant companion plants. Planting the ground beneath and around deciduous fruit trees creates exactly the kind of fertility that fruit trees need. Use your most used and beloved perennial flowers, herbs, and vegetables, in a mixture of taproots e.g. chicory, comfrey, fennel or horse radish, and spreading roots like yarrow, white clover, or lemonbalm. Here are a few of my favs. Kahikatea farm has an inspiring collection.

Plant deciduous fruit trees, nuts, berries and currants. Order fruit and nut trees as bareroots from nurseries, if you can, rather than buying potted ones. Berries, grapes and currants will be in pots.

Before planting day double check positions and spacings with a stake and marinate – banging in labelled stakes where you think your trees are going. Ponder the pozy’s by imaging the full grown width and height of the tree, and move the stakes about until trees are a good fit. Such a clarifying exercise, and it makes planting day easy when you don’t have to think about where trees are going. Plant bareroot trees soon after they arrive.

Check new growth

The new wood is on the tips of branches and is smooth, shiny and a different colour to older wood. See the bud scar where the new wood has sprouted from the two year old wood?

Assess the new growth of all your deciduous fruit trees to see how well they grew last year. This is an especially important check for young trees cos they need to be growing strong limbs!

  • If new wood is 30cm-ish long, and there’s a goodly amount of it evenly spread throughout the tree all is well. Even so, give a young tree with healthy growth a spade of compost- toss it about, and maybe a scattering of woody mulch too. An established tree likely won’t need it – gardener’s choice!
  • If the new wood is 10cm or less and/or there isn’t much of it, spread a layer of compost and mulch mainly around and a little further out from the dripline to encourage roots to spread.
  • If the new wood is bonkers long, thick and strong, step away from compost and mulch, and from the loppers too cos winter pruning inspires growth. Prune after harvest instead.

Prune

Sharpening seceteurs pre pruning edible backyard nz

Prune berries, currants, grapes, feijoas and avocados for best health and better fruits, next year. Prune young deciduous fruit trees to get a good shape going, and poorly deciduous fruit trees who need a boost of growth. Leave vigorous stone fruits and pip fruits until after harvest.

Check for woolly aphids, and redo stakes and ties

Woolly aphids are fans of apple or pear trees. They surround themselves in white, cottonwool. They may be on branches or the root crown.
  • Check for woolly aphids on pear or apples. They are generally a sign of stress through the growing season – too dry, too wet or too hungry. Take note, and plan to rectify next season. Meantime, order in some Neem ready to spray at the end of winter. If aphids are in the root crown sprinkle Neem granules around the base as well as spraying.
  • Check in on stakes to make sure they are needed. If the tree is well seated, whip them out. Reposition any that are rubbing on the tree, situate stakes about 30cm away from the trunk.
  • Remove ties, and redo them if needed.