Fruit tree care
Pick from our tree of knowledge and know thy fruit tree care for every season.
Summer
- With your tree (hopefully) full of ripening fruit, it’ll be irresistible to fruit flies and birds. Bird netting will stop feathered friends feasting on your fruit while fruit fly bait around your tree will keep pesky fruit flies away. We recommend eco-naturalure Fruit Fly Bait, which can be detected by fruit flies from several metres away.
Autumn
- Autumn is a quiet season for fruit tree care. Keep your tree disease-free by picking up fallen leaves and fruit before they start to decompose.
- Ensure the base of your tree is weed free and well mulched.
Winter
- Winter is the perfect time to prune your dormant fruit tree. If you’ve bought a new tree, prune as per tag instructions.
- Why not try a ‘vase-shape’ prune. This lets more sun hit your tree, which increases natural sugars and that means yummier fruit. To do this, cut most of the branches growing toward the centre of the tree to leave a small hollowed out area.
- Pick off rotting fruit from the tree and the ground, as it may attract pests.
- Clear grass and weeds growing within 50 centimetres of the tree base.
- Follow pruning with a layer of bark mulch.
- To stop fungus, spray your tree with a fungicide like Amgrow’s Copper Oxychloride, using a spray pump.
Spring
- When the buds on your fruit tree start to swell, it’s time to spray Amgrow Lime Sulphur to prevent leaf curl, rot, mites and scale.
- Feed your tree specialised fruit fertiliser, like Amgrow’s ecosmart Citrus & Fruit Fertiliser.
- Spring is a great time to put up bird netting, as come summer your ripe fruit will be irresistible to birds.
- Peach, nectarine and plum fruit trees are likely to be attacked by fruit flies in spring, so when your fruit is about the size of a large marble, place a fruit fly bait which has no withholding period - like eco-naturalure Fruit Fly Bait - around the tree. For more tips on controlling fruit fly, click here.
- Water often and keep moisture in with a layer of bark mulch.
Fancy a mini orchard? For advice on growing dwarf fruit trees, click here.