November Fruit Tree To Do List

November is when the summer fruits really get a roll on – grapes, currants and berries are forming revealing the harvest to come. Keep an eye on these new fruits because birds + pests will be just as aware! Your daily walk is essential if you want to keep your fruits in best health. It’s incredible how a little pest squashing everyday keeps pests at bay.

• Shield bugs may be moving in on berry fruits and can be sorted with daily digital control. The advantage of not spraying is that predatory insects get a look in, but if populations are already large at this early stage, do a burst of Neem.
• Passionvine hopper juveniles – the white little fluffy bums – are best managed while young before they become impervious adults. A good case for Neem, if populations are usually large at yours. Get onto it now, and break the cycle.

Let the grass go

What an awesome habitat we give our fruit trees when we let the grasses and wild plants go. It’s a home coming for them to exist in a networked, diverse, perennial groundcover. Oh the life that comes! Put away the mower and god forbid the sprayer and experience nature as she intended.

Grass left long provides habitat for insects that are kin to your land, and is an amazing support for young trees through summer. Tuck up inside some long grass, and feel the protection for yourself. Lay back, listen to the hum…. its nature at her finest.

As grass grows taller, the roots dive deeper – opening heavy soil and holding sandy ones. The more roots in your soil, the broader the range of soil biology – that below ground network upon which the health and rigor of your garden depends. Build biology in the simplest of ways by letting your garden go. Don’t worry about trees being starved of nutrients – far from it, plants collaborate, sharing resources and warning each other of pest + disease.

Thinning

Pears and apples are setting now and plums, apricots and peaches well on their way. Thinning is, ideally, on your mind. Its an orchard job that I rate above nearly all others – the difference to your trees health, productivity and the quality of your crop is huge.

As fruits reach marble size – remove the excess in order to improve the remainder. It’s a quick easy job once you get the hang of it. If your trees are young, remove them all. Drop the thinnings as you go, to return the carbs to the tree.

Berries

Raspberries + Blackberries
Attach fruiting canes to the frame/ wires and check in on bee activity.
Are they mulched and summer ready? A mixed, mature (ie not hot!) woodchip is ideal here.
Be ready with bird protection – the first raspberries will be ripe soon enough.

Strawberries
Pluck off the flowers of any little plants that are valiantly putting them out so they can instead, put their energy into a bigger canopy. Its better to have a goodly rosette of leaves before letting flowering commence. More flowers will come, and with more resources at play – fruiting will go on longer and fruits will be better by far.
If you haven’t already, spread well rotten manure or homemade compost at their base and top it off with a mulch.
Set up birdnet. Cloches or a simple frame of your creating is the way to go if you dont have a berryhouse. Whatever you create, be sure you can access the crop easily, if not the daily harvest can be a pain.

Disease check

Keep an eye out for disease – blistering leaves, holes, discolourations – just in a relaxed, noting it, kind of way.
Before you reach for google + complicated diagnosis, check in to be sure the basics are being met – appropriate drainage, diverse herbal ley, woody mulch, zero herbicide and a variety well suited to your place. Peaches, for instance aren’t beloved of my high spring rainfall, heavy clay combo. I grow them, but accept all the fungal issues as par for the course.
New orchards are more susceptible to imbalance. Be patient – there is much to settle in when we create new environments. The worst thing you can do to a diseased deciduous tree, is react with feeding. Woody mulch and words of encouragement are all it needs right now.
Take a photo each week, as the disease progresses. That way you can clearly speak to the whole process, through the seasons and are better placed when you seek advice. Most issues are either weak spots in your set up, or environmental. Either way, focus on building an awesome system, not so much the disease.

Avocado Harvest

Avocado season is in! Pick them with a bit of stem in tact for long keeping. And no need to pick them all at once, they hang beautifully on the tree.

Choose the fattest ones. Hold an avocado round its widest bit, its belly – and when there’s a goodly gap between thumb and fore finger, pluck them off with some stem intact.

Harvest as many as you’ll eat in a week. Do this each week and this way you’ll always be walking into ripe avocados – what a treat! As the weather warms, the length of time it takes them to ripen speeds up. Last month they were buttery and black in 14 days and now they’re taking about 10.

I keep some in the cool of the pantry and some on the table where its warmer to stagger the ripening.

Plant Citrus + Avocados

Its a great time to plant heat loving subtropicals -like avocado tamarillo, passionfruits and citrus. (Use these same parameters for tamarillo and passionfruit.)

Citrus and subtropicals hate the cold, which is why we delay planting new trees until weathers and soil warm. This way they’ll flourish in their first season, stretch roots out and are a bit bigger and settled in before having to tackle their first cold season.

Biological Sprays

Give fruit trees, and indeed your whole garden a biological spray. A coating of beneficial fungi and bacteria to promote diversity, immunity and all round strength. Its all about who fills the space – the good guys or the bad. Simple as that, so load your trees up with the good ‘uns!