Advice on Winter Care of Fruit Trees

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OldFlowerGirl Castlegar, BC(Zone 6b) Sep 14, 2004

I live in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada and I would really appreciate some help for this transpalnted Prairie Girl who knows diddlysquat about Fruit Trees. After a recent move, I inherited 6 fruit trees; a Plum tree, Mackintosh apple tree, Delicious apple tree, Bing Cherry tree, Pear tree and one mystery tree (no fruit this summer and no ID tag). Do I have to do anything special for these trees this Autumn to get ready them for winter and spring? Prune or anything? I'd sure appreciate any advice from gardeners who have these critters. :) Thanks.



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Post #1048751
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Equilibrium Sep 17, 2004

Not much for you to do at this time of year other than to check for viral and fungal infections. You can take note of any insect infestations too. Later this winter or very early spring is when you might want to consider pruning all of your fruit trees. When you prune, just be sure to disinfect your tools before you move on to another tree. You might also want to begin checking into whether or not you will want to spray your fruit trees next year. The first spraying would be before bud break but other than that not much to do at this time of year other than to begin researching what to do for next year. Lucky you that you have fruit trees.

This might help-
http://www.wowpages.com/nga/EDIT/Articles/pruning.qua

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notmartha Bay City, MI(Zone 6a) Sep 17, 2004

Keep the bunnies away-they can do real dammage to the bark!!!

We wrap the bottoms in plastic tiles and try to keep an eye on them in case the snow gets to high and they can reach the bottom branches!!!

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OldFlowerGirl Castlegar, BC(Zone 6b) Sep 18, 2004

Thank you Equilibrium & Notmartha,

I really appreciate your help on this subject. Now at least I can appear to know what I'm doing with these trees. LOL I learned a lot from your link, Equilibrium. :o)

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Post #1055855
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Equilibrium Sep 19, 2004

I forgot to mention that you can use Lysol spray to disinfect your pruners instead of a bleach silution if you want. My neighbor helps me and he mentioned he had been using Lysol for years. I guess he got tired of splashing bleach on his jeans and looking speckled. At least that's what he said and I can see that happening.

Best wishes to you.

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mdvaden Beaverton, OR Sep 19, 2004

Clean leaves up soon and don't leave them under the apple trees. Don't compost apple leaves near apple trees.

If you plan to dormant spray, remove sprouts by November so you can get better spray coverage. Sprouts interfere with spraying, and cause more spray product to be applied.

I don't remove every sprout anymore. Now I take off 2/3 to 3/4 of the largest ones and leave a few small sprouts to supply a little bit of natural hormone to control sprouting.

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