Get to know your buds! I mean the buds on your orchard trees. The stage of the bud will determine what to do in your orchard to have a healthy, productive harvest.
March and April Chores
In March and April the buds are in the dormant stage and the progress to the delayed dormant stage. In dormant stage the buds are tightly closed. It is a very easy stage to identify. Specific tasks should be done at this stage.
Dormant Stage Chores:
- Prune apples and pears. Remove dead, diseased, and crossing branches. Prune to allow light in.
- Pruning Apples and Pears
- Prune tart cherries. Remove dead, diseased and crossing branches. Use heading cuts to shorten lengthy branches
While pruning watch for signs of fire blight. This appears as dead leaves that did not fall from the tree on terminal tips that are bent in a shepherd's hook shape. Trim 10" below this and clean pruners with clorox wipes after pruning.
Delayed Dormant stage of buds will occur at different times for each fruit. It includes the stages when the sap begins to flow and the buds begin to swell. It also includes some stages beyond this depending on the type of tree.
Apples: Silver Tip, Green Tip, Half Inch Green
Pears: Swollen Bud, Bud Burst, Green Cluster
Peaches: Swollen Bud, Calyx Green, Quarter Inch Green, First Pink
Cherries: Swollen Bud, Bud Burst, Tight Cluster
Apricot: Swollen Bud
Apples: Silver Tip, Green Tip, Half Inch Green
Pears: Swollen Bud, Bud Burst, Green Cluster
Peaches: Swollen Bud, Calyx Green, Quarter Inch Green, First Pink
Cherries: Swollen Bud, Bud Burst, Tight Cluster
Apricot: Swollen Bud
Click on the link below to see picture of the bud stages. Basically it is when buds swell and begin to open but are not fully open.
Delayed Dormant Chores:
- Prune peach, apricot, nectarine, plum, and sweet cherry
- All fruit trees need to have an application of horticulture oil or dormant oil. This is the 1st spray of the season. Any woody shrub of landscape tree can also be sprayed. Read the link below to learn when to spray. Spraying is timed so that it coincides with emerging insects.
Pests that Dormant oil targets:- In apple and pears - Green apple aphid, rosy apple aphid, blister mites, San Jose scale
- In peach, nectarine, apricot and plum- Green peach aphid, leafcurl plum aphid, peach tree borer
- Cherry- black cherry aphid
Each fruit trees has a specific aphid that attacks that tree. Eggs of aphids overwinter around the the buds. Eggs hatch is in spring and feed on buds and leaves. Large infestations cause the leaves to curl and if you uncurl the leaves you can see the tiny aphids. Around June the aphids develop wings and leave your fruit trees for weeds and other host plants.
Blister mites feed within the leaves all season long. Mites over winter on the bud scales and hatch at bud swell. By petal fall, the mites lay their eggs and their feeding produces blisters which provide shelter for the mites.
San Jose scale is an odd insect that is immobile its entire life. They have a stylet that pierces the tissue to feed on plant tissues. They overwinter on the bark and over 200 crawler can hatch from a given female. This is the only stage the insect is mobile. Large infestations can weaken and eventual kill limbs.
Peach twig borer that affects peaches, nectarines, and apricots overwinters on the bark as a larvae.
Dormant or horticulture oils target these pest by suffocating the eggs or larvae of these pests.
Fertilizer Applications if Needed
All fruits trees could use a soil application of chelated iron if iron chlorosis has been a problem in past years. It is important to apply it now in and in chelated form. Spread dry form around the drip line of the tree. Peaches are especially vulnerable to iron chlorosis.
Apply a nitrogen fertilizer if you had less than 8" of new growth the previous season. I apply a balance dry organic fertilizer for fruit trees and azomite. I do not end up doing this every year/.
Soil test is you have concerns about other deficiencies. I personally have not done this because my trees have been healthy and thriving but if you feel that you are doing everything right and the trees are not thriving it might be good to have a soil test.
Spread a compost around the tree and you are setting the stage for a healthy, productive harvest. Of course, in Utah, spring is fickle and the threat of a late frost or even snow is still there.
Fertilizer Applications if Needed
All fruits trees could use a soil application of chelated iron if iron chlorosis has been a problem in past years. It is important to apply it now in and in chelated form. Spread dry form around the drip line of the tree. Peaches are especially vulnerable to iron chlorosis.
Apply a nitrogen fertilizer if you had less than 8" of new growth the previous season. I apply a balance dry organic fertilizer for fruit trees and azomite. I do not end up doing this every year/.
Soil test is you have concerns about other deficiencies. I personally have not done this because my trees have been healthy and thriving but if you feel that you are doing everything right and the trees are not thriving it might be good to have a soil test.
Spread a compost around the tree and you are setting the stage for a healthy, productive harvest. Of course, in Utah, spring is fickle and the threat of a late frost or even snow is still there.
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