The story of your fruit harvest starts now – in the rising of the sap and the swelling of the buds. It’s a tale told by the bees, as they go blossom to blossom; then taken up by a fruit that evades rats, possums, wind and rain. It’s a cycle, that if unbroken, creates baskets of fruit. A cycle, that’s a blimmin’ miracle and deserves your witness. Check it out, watch it unfold and learn this years story.
And because every year is different, you need to learn each one anew. As you do, the years roll by and all that time spent amongst your trees does the inevitable and grows a really cool connection. A sacred connection, as old as life itself, where confusion fades and understanding dawns.
Manage height in plums and peaches
Spring is an excellent time to tame the height of vigorous plums and peaches. When pruned in spring, they respond with gentle growth because they’ve already used a chunk of energy up making blossoms and new shoots. There’s less fuel in the tank, so to speak. Use it to your advantage – though not as an excuse to go hard out! Stone fruit are naturally spreading trees, so for best shape and health – let them reach and spread as much as is practical.
As always, prune on a dry day.
Begin by circumnavigating the tree and identifying the tallest or widest shoot – this will be your first prune. How much height/ width do you need to remove? May I recommend, just enough to bring it back into balance with less vigorous parts of the tree. Start with less and see how you go.
Hold the tallest branch in your sights and follow it back to where it meets the trunk.
- All along this branch will be intersections with side shoots or branches.
- Prune back to any one of these, until you’ve reduced the branch to a height that balances with the rest of the tree. Ensure that what remains, heads outward and/or downward.
- Aim for a few bolder cuts rather than lots of small, and if a big cut is in your sights, perhaps just do the one this year.
In this way go from one overly tall shoot/ branch to the next. Each will require a different treatment. Some wont need a prune, some a little and some a lot. You will get clear on how much needs to come off when you step away from the tree, to assess each cut. Do not embarrass your tree with a bowl haircut – snipping equidistantly around the outside☺️
If you feel timid, I encourage you to find a bold cut and make it! Your tree is a miracle, bursting with lifeforce and the will to grow. Pruning inspires shooting, it’s not the end!
Over zealous pruners can challenge themselves in the opposite direction – take your time between each cut. Really see the tree. What can you allow and let go?
Divide +plant comfrey
Now’s the time to take root cuttings of your comfrey and plant them out.
Comfrey is a must have herb – gathering mineral riches from soil: silicon, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, iodine… and more besides! This accumulation of minerals comes up from the deep, via a set of licorice like tap roots that open and aerate soil and create nutritious greens on top. A wonder plant indeed! Heres the comfrey low down.
Train deciduous fruit trees
Young branches are flexible in spring as sap begins to rise making this the perfect time to tie them down.
Use this gentle technique in the early years, to create a balanced shape and make the most of the productive potential. Transforming an upright shoot to a horizontal branch, inspires more fruit spurs and opens trees for light and healthy airflow.
This is also useful on older trees when new shoots arrive where a bigger branch has been removed the season prior. Use them to fill the gap. Read all about how to in this post here.
A Spring Feed for Deciduous Fruit Trees, Citrus, Passionfruits and Strawberries
Feeding in spring works with rising energies – as fruit trees begin to move, lets support them, not in a rich, heavy handed way but with biological steadiness. Read all about it here.
Mulch + Airflow
If your trees are prone to fungal infection, slash long grass/weeds/herbal ley to bring airflow. Use the slashed stuff for an awesome mulch in the vegie patch, or making compost.
Spread a woody mulch to stimulate beneficial fungi – just what trees need. Lay cardboard and spread the mulch beneath the tree. If comfrey is growing here, simply scatter the mulch about.
Double check your pruning as foliage begins to arrive to see whether or not you need to thin a few more shoots to let air and light through.
Spraying
In my little world, spraying is biological. Its about coating the trees in beneficial fungi and bacteria in order to promote immunity and diversity and all round strength. A strong growing environment is full of life – fungi, bacteria, nematodes, bees, worms, insects of all sorts, birds, lizards – the more life, the stronger the garden, and the less pest and disease management you need do.
If spraying to you means copper, pause a mo. Copper’s a big call, impacting the beneficial soil life in a huge way, so lets be sure. Do your tree’s really need it? If blossom is out – you’ve missed your moment anyway … copper kills bees. Maybe this year is the year you go fungicide free! Read my healthy fruit tree game plan here, a journey to longterm holistic health.
A daily walk
The easiest and most pleasurable job of all! Wander your trees regularly and watch them wake up. Watch them through the different weathers. When it rains, bees often stay in the hive and those that do venture out, find it difficult to transfer pollen. Its worth a watch to appreciate just how difficult wet pollen is! If its windy, blossom may blow off. Thoughts of adequate shelter spring to mind.
Keep an eye out for disease – just in a relaxed, noting it, kind of way. It’s so very helpful for diagnostics later, when you can speak to this whole process, starting with the first signs.
All these parts of the equation, set the scene for the harvest. If you are intimate with the process, then when things go awry you can cast your mind back through the season and hopefully find the ‘circuit breaker’. Most often, its something super simple – look to the obvious things.
Hey Kath,
I missed the boat on my peach tree pruning this year and now that I have read a bit more I see a centre branch that needs to come out to promote air and light. It is pretty close to bud break .. …what happens if I do the chop now? I was just wondering if it would be good timing after reading about been ablte to tame the height of deciduous fruit trees in spring,
Cheers Kath, looking forward to the arrival of your book =)
No worries Jen – now is a great time to clean out that middle air/light blocking branch!
Kia ora Kath, thanks so much for all your info! We have bought your pruning book which is great. We have a Luisa plum tree that we pruned for the first time about a month ago – it’s central leader had broken off so we cut that out, plus some other branches (using your advice of observing, and no more than a third). Since then there are a gazillion watershoots! Some of them have blossoms on them, and some don’t. The tree is blossoming now (prolifically) and just starting to get leaves. Is it best to thin every third watershoot now, or wait until after it’s fruited? And is it better to prune the tree in summer, rather than end of winter? We are in Whatawhata, just out of Hamilton.
Nga mihi nui
Anna 🙂
Pull down any watershoots that you can to fill gaps and yes thin a few out now is sweet as. Ideally prune after fruiting, check out the pruning diary in my book 🙂 Enjoy!
Hello Kath,
I’ve been out there pruning this week, carefully following your advice. But I’m very worried about my ‘Blackboy’ peach tree. It’s been in for over 2 years, is over 6′ tall, produced only 3 peaches last year, lost its leaves just after they ripened and hasn’t shown any sign of life since. It has what looks like the beginnings of buds along all the branches, but they’ve been there all this time and haven’t budged. It doesn’t look dead though and the one small branch I cut off it wasn’t dry. We’re in Auckland, where everything is beginning to flower, but not this baby.
Last summer from early Feb till early April there was a rubbish skip parked beside it, cutting out some of its sun and, perhaps more important, airflow (it’sclose to a fence). And before it lost its leaves, while the skip was still there, they turned spotty and looked diseased.
I sprayed it with neem and seaweed today, and will continue with that in the hope it helps. And I’ve been feeding it potassium water from soaked banana waste. It’s been fed and mulched throughout. But is there any hope for it, in your view?
Fingers crossed, Deborah
Kia ora Deborah – pretty hard to say remotely. 2 years is oh so young in peach years dont give up just yet! Loss of a bit of sun and airflow is far from fatal. Wonder in this targetted way – have you checked in with the soil. If its heavy clay and or wet it’ll go someway to explaining as this isnt the preferred environ for peaches. Secondly head back a branch a tiny bit and check the wood – if its alive itll be white. Thirdly – Neem is for sucking insects, not useful in this instance – instead hop on my webiste and checkout biological sprays and get set up with that. While you are there read my healthy fruit tree game plan. Blackboys flower later than many other peaches so a little more waiting and you may well be in the money!
Hi. I have apple, pear and plum trees in my garden. Currently I let the chooks out every now and again as I have read they do a good job of dealing with grubs and possibly codling moth. I want to so some companion planting around the trees, but the chooks will destroy it. Am I better to keep the chooks out and do my planting? Or is there a time that the chooks would be more beneficial e.g. when the codling moth pupae are doing their thing. Then do planting.
Let the chooks in during winter when the comfrey and most other companions are asleep and when the grubs are asleep beneath. Enjoy!
Hi Kathy,
I planted a dwarf Cleopatra avacado tree on Queen Street Levin 4 weeks ago. I have protected it from wind and as much rain as possible. We have very good drainage being on an old river bed. Still the ground is wet. pH is 7.5. The leaves have yellow veins and are droopy, only 4 remain. Flower buds are showing. It has grown in the four weeks. What to do. So disappointed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Wet ground is by far and away avocados worst friend. Also better to wait and plant avos once the soils and night temps have warmed. Avos are heat lovers! Have a read through here to check the foundational basics off – https://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/avocado-how-to-grow/ You can find these articles by popping the topic in the search bar on top of my website – loads of info there for you all for free!
Let the tree be and as things warm up it may very well come to the party and if it doesnt well – just gotta let it go and try again with the bonus that you now know a few more things to make it better next time.
Good luck!
Thanks Kath!
Hi Kath, would it also be prudent to head back nectarines and cherry trees at this stage?
You can indeed Lesley – gently!
Hi Kath, I have a 2-year old peach tree which has just come out with curly leaf. There is quite a lot of small fruit on the tree. Is it worth spraying now, or should I wait until next winter. I wondered if the biological spray you have would do it any good at this stage. Thanks, Linda.
Hi Linda, Young fruit trees are more susceptible, so don’t worry too much – with thoughtful feeding, right variety et all they may grow past it – read through my healthy fruit tree game plan to check that all is in order. Botryzen is best as foliage begins to emerge with a few repeat sprays through the season – there is no concern regards the fruits. Depending on what stage your leaf development is at – give it a go. Have you checked their website? EM + seaweed sprays are well worth while to support the tree through the season.