Before winter comes, take time to prepare your fruit trees. This includes giving them protection from cold temperatures, rodents, infections and even the sun.
Mulching
Mulching fruit trees with a thick layer of organic material will protect the roots from severe cold weather. Because fruit trees naturally grow by the edge of forests where the soil is littered with branches and leaves, similar high-carbon mulch is best.
Wood chips, straw and leaves are usually most available and will protect the trees’ roots during winter. As this mulch decomposes the following spring, it gives soil a slightly acidic pH that fruit trees require for their best growth.
1. Wood chips are a valuable source of high-carbon mulch and minerals. The highest in minerals are small branches not more than 2.5” in diameter. One source of these branches is from springtime pruning.
Additionally, if tree trimmers are clearing electrical lines in your vicinity, ask them to dump loads of chips at your house. It may be a chore to transport them from driveway to orchard, but worth the effort any time of the year.
2. Straw is also a valuable source of high carbon mulch. Unlike hay, it is an excellent insulator because it has hollow stems which hold air. Always be sure the straw you use hasn’t been “dried down” with Roundup.
You don’t want to mulch your trees with an herbicide that has also been patented as an antibiotic. We want the soil surrounding our fruit trees to be vibrant with microbes!
3. Leaves are a wonderful addition because the roots of trees transfer minerals from deep in the soil to their leaves. By enriching fruit trees’ soil with minerals, we are fortifying their immune systems from disease and increasing the nutrition of their fruit.
4. Compost can also serve as mulch for fruit trees, but additional carbon should be added to standard compost used for vegetable gardens. Adding “brown” material like wood-chips, straw and leaves, gives compost the balance fruit trees need.
The following three steps will help insure healthy trees for your next year’s harvest:
- Mulch should be placed at least six to eight inches deep to protect the trees’ roots during cold winter months.
- Mulch should be placed out to the drip line of each tree. If we picture each tree’s branches as an open umbrella, the “drip line” becomes evident.
- Keep mulch at least six inches away from the trees’ trunks. Mice and voles find mulch an excellent winter home, and you want to discourage them from damaging the tree’s bark.
Protecting fruit trees’ trunks
This is especially important in winter for two very different reasons. The first was mentioned above—rodents and rabbits love to chew on tree-trunk bark which can kill fruit trees. Besides keeping mulch a distance from the trunks, young trees need the extra protection of tree guards. The easiest tree guards to use are the white, spiral variety sold through tree nurseries and online.
White tree guards solve the second winter problem to fruit tree trunks—sun scald. Sunny winter days heat up the dark fruit tree trunks which then cool rapidly in the evening. These swings in temperature cause expansion and contraction of the bark which result in it cracking and peeling. Fruit tree trunks thus become more susceptible to insect damage and disease.
White latex paint can be used instead of tree guards to prevent wintertime’s rodent and sun damage. White paint reflects back the winter sun and prevents the bark from warming and thus avoids cracking and peeling of the trunk’s bark. Interestingly, white latex paint also discourages rodents, rabbits and insects. It can either be diluted to ½-strength with water or used full strength.
Remove dead fruit to prevent fungal infections
There are usually some dried out fruit remaining on fruit trees and the ground every autumn and early winter. This old fruit provides breeding ground for fungal pathogens. Balance can be tipped to the “good fungi” by removing all dead fruit from the vicinity of fruit trees.
This helps the trees’ natural immunity withstand disease without using chemicals. You can place them in a young compost pile where pathogens will be destroyed during the natural heat of the composting process.
Mulching around the trees, protecting their trunks and removing old fruit are three important measures to insure healthy trees the following spring.
