Top ten fruit tree tips for September

1. Start preparing the ground where you are intending to plant your new orchard, cordons, fans or espalier-trained fruit trees. Check the pH of the soil which needs to be between 6.3 and 6.8. If the pH of the soil is below 6.3, apply some lime and work into the soil.
2. Make sure the site and position is right; not in a frost pocket or on the northerly and shady sites of buildings, walls or hedges.
3. Apply plenty of well-rotted farmyard manure and work into the soil up to a depth of 15 inches.
4. Remove and kill perennial weeds such as bramble, stinging nettle and couch grass.
5. Eliminate wasps nests and remove rotting fruits, which will hide the wasps, from the orchard floor.
6. Remove any rotting or damaged fruits from the trees. Pick the fruit that is ready to eat. Do not store early-maturing fruits such as Discovery and Grenadier apples. Fruit for storage needs to be slightly immature. Fruit that is too ripe will not store.
7. Finish the summer pruning programmes as mentioned in the August tips.
8. Check the storage space for your fruit; it needs to be clean, cool and free from vermin such as flies and mice.
9. Check that the thermometer in the store is in good working order.
10. Start discussing which varieties would be suitable for your location with a knowledgeable and experienced fruit specialist. All types of fruit are site sensitive!

A good crop on a well-tended apple tree

Planning a new orchard

Well-rotted manure. Photo courtesy The Word Factory Ltd/flickr.com

To create a successful multi fruit orchard, it is very important to carry out the various soil preparations during this time of the year. The winter months, the correct time to plant fruit trees, are often not good for soil preparation, as the soil is already too cold and handles badly. The quality of the soil in the planting hole will determine how quickly and how well the newly-planted tree settles down in its new home.

The rootstocks that you will be using depends on the space available for planting fruit trees. Dwarf rootstocks are recommended when limited space is available. If a good deal of space is available, then the trees would do best if planted on semi-vigorous stock such as MM106, Quince A and St Julien A. These trees need to be planted approximately 3.5 to 4 metres apart. The exact number of trees needed also depends on the proximity of other large trees, such as hedgerow trees, oak, ash and sycamore. Fruit trees do badly when planted on the live roots of other trees. Follow this link to find out more about tree size and rootstocks.

I think that it is a good idea to set out the orchard at this time of year, initially using 6-foot tall bamboo canes. This way you can mark the planting spots of your new trees, in relation to hedgerows, buildings etc.; it gives you an idea of how the new multi-fruit orchard will look. Variety choices can only be made once you have decided which type of fruit you want to plant. Follow this link to view a list of fruit tree varieties.

The ideal pH of the soil is 6.3 to 6.8. Outside those limits, nutritional deficiencies will occur when the trees get older. Fruit trees love well-rotted good organic stable manure, provided straw is used as a base material and not sawdust or wood chips. The more manure you can work into the ground during the summer months, the better the trees will perform in years to come.

“Grease-banding” fruit trees

Grease bands around tree and stake. Photo courtesy Royal Horticultural Society

Some of you may remember The Grease Band from the 1970s, they played with Joe Cocker and featured in a memorable performance at Woodstock. But in this article I’m talking about soil rather than rock!

If you would like to reduce the harmful effect of caterpillars in the early spring, munching away on the newly appearing blossoms and young fruitlets, without applying chemicals and insecticides, then grease bands are an old-fashioned but highly effective method. It is all based on the principle that certain female species of various insects are wingless and begin to crawl their way up the tree, via the trunk or low-hanging, ground-touching branches. The stake next to the tree may be used as a route to climb into the tree. The pests I am referring to are the larvae of the Winter Moth, the Mottled Umber Moth and the Vapourer Moth. These larvae, once they have arrived at their destination, will begin to deposit their eggs around the fruit buds and in the crevices of the bark all over the tree. No damage occurs this time of the year. When the winter has passed and the temperatures begin to increase, then the eggs of the larvae, deposited this time of the year, will produce lots and lots of little caterpillars. These will begin their munching feast on all that freshly-appearing green foliage. Then, worse still, once blossom time is over, they will then start chomping away at the young fruitlets just as they are appearing.

It is now – early-mid October – that the larvae of those insects begin their journey from the soil into the trees. If applied correctly, the grease bands will trap them. Follow the instructions on the packet. Any good garden centre stocks them at this time of the year. Keep your grease bands in place to the end of April as in the spring other insects will also try to climb into the tree for the same purpose. Grease bands are therefore very valuable not only at this time of the year but also during warm days in the winter and the spring, repelling all sorts of creepy crawlers. Remember to attach them to the stake as well.

Some types of grease are applied directly to the tree trunk. Photo courtesy of veggies-only.blogspot.it

To tell the truth, I have only ever used grease bands of the type in which the sticky stuff is on sheets of plastic, so that the grease itself is not in contact with the trunk. There are types of grease sold in tubs that can be applied direct to the trunk of your fruit trees, as shown in the photo. Perhaps someone could tell me about their experience on this. In any case, another thing that should be done at this time is to cut the low ground-touching branches back to at least 18 inches above soil level

Now, if you have a nice little orchard with wire netting around it, keeping the chickens in, then most of these wingless insects will have been consumed by the chickens. There is no better way of biological control of various pests, than having lovely egg-laying chickens settled in your orchard. What’s more it is a wonderful way of not only daily collecting the chicken eggs, but also at the same time keeping an eye on your beautiful fruit trees.

If you’d like to order some trees, take a look at our main website. P.S., we don’t sell chickens!

Pitmaston Pine Apple

Pitmaston Pine Apple. Photo courtesy of Lawrence Wright/flickr.com

This is a well flavoured smallish apple particularly suited to the wetter parts of the UK. It has a high level of resistance to scab which often disfigures many varieties in areas of high rainfall. It is a small russety apple in need of good pollination. It is fairly upright and forms useful spurs. It also ripens in September and will keep in cool conditions for a couple of months. Mice love it as well!

Click here to go to the Tree Varieties page, where you can select this and other varieties with a provisional order

Peasgood Nonsuch

Peasgood Nonsuch – click here to read the article on our main website

Browse our list of fruit tree varieties

Orleanne’s Reinette

Orleans Reinette – click here to read the article on our main website

Browse our list of fruit tree varieties

Newton Wonder

Newton Wonder – click here to read the article on our main website

Browse our list of fruit tree varieties

Laxton Superb

Laxton’s Superb – click here to read the article on our main website

Browse our list of fruit tree varieties

Preparations for planting

The rewards of a well-tended orchard

Fruit trees will look after themselves if you do the following things.

So you’ve decided that you’re going to plant some fruit trees, you’ve placed the order, and you know that you’ll receive the trees some time from November to April, the ideal planting time when the trees are dormant. Now is the time to prepare the planting site!

Check the pH of the soil. It should be between 6.3 and 6.6. Garden centres stock inexpensive pH meters.

Set out the planting positions, with tall bamboo canes, well before the trees arrive. You’ll have worked out the planting plan and the distances between trees with your supplier. Remove one square metre of grass sward for each tree position and remove this grass totally from the planting position. The reason is that the grass roots compete fiercely with the tree, and tend to stop the tree from establishing itself on the new site. Newly planted trees and grass are BAD companions!

Grass roots are very bad for the trees in the early years, when the trees need all the water available. Break up the topsoil and loosen the subsoil over 1 square metre for each tree. This is very important as tree roots hate stagnant water during the winter months. Keep the soil of the tree positions free from weeds for the rest of the season and for two years after that. The planting hole needs to be at least 1’6” in diameter and approximately 6” deep. Only put the best top soil on top of the roots. No subsoil. Loosen the subsoil with a rigid tine fork, before you plant the tree.

While the soil is reasonably dry, this is the best time to put the stakes in place near the planting positions. Set a stake upright in the middle of each 1 square metre. The stake needs to be 2” in diameter, 1’6” in the ground and 4’6” feet above the ground. Total length 6 feet.

If you think that you won’t be able to plant the trees straight away when they arrive, you’ll have to heel them into a shallow trench 8 inches deep and 6 inches wide.

Good drainage is absolutely essential for the trees to thrive. If drainage is suspect on your site, the trees will have to be planted on a mound. The height of the mound needs to be at least 10 inches above soil level and 3 foot wide in diameter. Only use the best topsoil to construct the mound.

Click here to read the complete story – including the planting operations and the tree’s first season

© Dan Neuteboom  5 Oct 2012