Outstanding Advice for Successful Fruit Gardening
Are you wondering when to prune your fruit trees? Are bugs bugging your berry patch? Do you need hands-on advice to create a fruitful berry garden and home orchard? It's at your finger tips right here - Stella Otto, horticulturist, teacher, and award winning author shares her years of experience and answers your questions while guiding you on the path to many fruitful harvests!
Timely attention is one of the keys to success in growing fruit. It plays a role in helping growers keep ahead of pests and diseases, so problems remain small rather than becoming overwhelming. It also helps preserve the best in just picked flavor before fruit becomes overripe. Let the reminder list below help make your gardening routine timely, tasty, and bountiful!
June 12, 2013
Activity in the fruit garden is in full swing. It's time to pay attention to:
Soil is getting dry. Water once or twice a week as needed to supply an inch of water per week. Apply mulch to retain moisture.
Start trickle irrigation, if you have it, to keep soil moisture reserves at adequate levels.
Pull weeds while they are still small and before they have a chance to go to seed or spread. A good layer of mulch will also keep new weeds from germinating.
Deer may be feeding on young shoots. Repellants need to be rotated to keep the deer from getting too comfortable with any one method. Options include spray repellants, flicker tape, bags of tankage or human hair, scented soap bars, or fabric softener sheets.
Remove strawberry blossoms from newly planted plants so that energy can go to growing a strong plant
June drop is likely to be occurring in tree fruit. This natural thinning process is nothing to worry about. You may even need to do additional hand thinning if too much fruit is still remaining on the tree.
Be aware that Sevin insecticide may cause fruit drop on apples and pears if applied within 30 days of bloom.
Scab and brown rot protection sprays are important to maintain if weather is wet.
Pests to watch and control include Plum curculio, Codling moth, Leafrollers, and Tent caterpillars. Also appearing soon in many areas - Raspberry cane borer, Peach tree borers, and Dogwood borer.
Strawberries are approaching harvest in many areas. Remember to let fruit get fully ripe, no white shoulders or green tips, if you want the fullest flavor.
Raspberries are starting to show blossom buds too.
