Four tips to help your young fruit tree thrive

Give your young fruit tree a little extra attention now and it will pay you back with a generous harvest for many years.

Here are a few tips:

  1. Start shaping a healthy branch structure now. The first season, scope out four to seven solid, lateral branches that will be your heavyweight fruit holders in years to come. The goal is to have evenly spaced branches, starting with the lowest one 2-3 feet from the ground and spiraling up the trunk 1-2 feet apart. This will let in sunlight to ripen fruit and dry off moisture, and allow air to circulate to prevent fungal diseases. Once you’ve selected your good branches, you can decide which competing branches to remove. Here’s a must-read article about pruning young fruit trees.

    Radial spacing of branches
    Strive for evenly spaced branches radially and vertically that will be your heavyweight fruit holders.
  1. Avoid common pruning mistakes. Number one is probably cutting too close to the trunk and injuring the tree at the branch collar. Here are some more pruning mistakes you can avoid.

    Branch bark ridge
    Keep your pruning cuts away from the trunk, where you could damage the branch collar, where the healing hormones live.
  1. Mulch, mulch, mulch. A mounded doughnut of bark, compost or dried leaves will help your tree retain moisture and nutrients. We keep a free pile of mulch at our office! Here are more mulching tips.

    Great mulch ring guys!
    Great mulch ring guys!
  2. Clean up your fruit. After harvest season, try not to leave fruit on the ground over the winter, because that’s where a lot of pests can live.

If you want to dig a little deeper, check out upcoming fruit tree care workshops hosted by the Portland Fruit Tree Project. Happy harvesting!