what to do for peach and apple trees to weather proof

[the1honeycomb]

I have a few trees that are 2 years old, is there anything i need to do for them to keep them healthy for the spring?
I got 1 peach last year and no apples.
Any help would be greatly appreciated:bee

 

[StupidBird]

I've got fairly new dwarf apple and plum (zone 7b) and am going through protecting the root zones. The chickens seem to enjoy digging around the little trunks. Bags of leaves, brown paper (leaf bags, flattened), scrap limbs and old half rotted lumber to hold it all down. I think the birds will dig these up pretty soon too.

 

[the1honeycomb]

Thanks I free range my birds only in the back yard the neighbor across the street's dog has taught them not to come in the front!!I have put out lots of mulch on them

do you know when they will really start to produce? 3yrs, 4??

 

[thistlebloom]

Honeycomb, for winter prep you don't need to do much more than make sure they are well hydrated. Your ground probably doesn't freeze hard, so even that isn't so critical, since if you don't get rain you can always water.

Mulch is good but keep it away from the trunk (about 4" away ) and not more than 3" deep. Too deep mulch will encourage roots to surface.

'Bird, you can lay chicken wire down and mulch over it. Your chickens wont enjoy scratching the wire.

 

[BarredBuff]

I probably should water all of my young trees, I have about 8 or 9 new ones. How often and how much?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd make sure they are absolutely dormant, but you might look at pruning them if they can use it. There are all kinds of pruning guides on-line on how to do it, but mainly you are looking at removing dead branches, those that cross and rub against each other, water sprouts, and maybe shaping the tree. Look for how you prune specific fruit trees. For most of them you are looking at an open tree that gets a lot of sunlight to the middle of the tree, but not all. Google "prune apple trees" or prune cherry trees", whatever you have.

How soon they bear depends if you got dwarf, semi-dwarf, or regular trees, plus what kind of fruit trees you bought. Apples will bear a lot earlier than pears, and dwarfs will bear earlier than semi-dwarf, which still bear earlier than regular.

 

[thistlebloom]

I probably should water all of my young trees, I have about 8 or 9 new ones. How often and how much?

What's your soil like and what kind of trees did you plant BarredBuff?
How much you water and how often depends on your soil type, tree type and size, weather conditions, season of the year etc.

Basically though, you don't want the soil to be dry in the root zone. The top 2 or 3 inches should dry between waterings.

Obviously a deciduous tree in winter is going to use far less water than an evergreen, and sandy soil is going to need water applied more often than clay.

When you do water, make sure you're giving the tree a good deep soak. Let the hose trickle in the watering basin until it's full, move to the next tree and repeat, continue with all your trees then start all over with the first one again. ( This could take more than a day to cycle through all your trees ).

 

[the1honeycomb]

Wow!!! Great info!!!
I will be able to use all that and hopefully I'll get more than one peach, and Apple like I did last year!!! :watering
Happy to get a ll the help I can Thank you very much!!!!!:rose

 

[StupidBird]

I set up drip irrigation, which is probably why the chickens dug those spots up so bad. They had my leaves/paper/branches dug up by the next day, so I'll put a roll of chicken wire on the TSC shopping list.

 

[catjac1975]

Sun scald is hte only thing I can think of. Paint the trunk with block out. Or use a plastic trunk protector for sun scald and animal damage.