Pests

Now that summer is well and truly over, it’s about time you looked at how to care for your trees in the up and coming autumn months.

If you are one of those lucky enough to have fruit trees in your garden area, then you will only be too familiar with the problem that arises when autumn arrives. After you have gathered all of your apples, pears or whatever fruit tree you have, you will then need to apply the proper care and treatment methods to keep your tree thriving all year round.

Are You Noticing Rotting?

If you have clear signs of rotting fruit or leaves, it’s time to call it a day for your summer of fruits. Once apples, pears and often plums start to show signs of brown rot, you need to remove them from the tree and dispose of them correctly.

If you were to let them fall to the ground below, they will decay on the soil and the disease will then lie on the ground, affecting future growth. One of the mistakes most fruit tree owners make is to just let rotten fruit fall for the birds, please don’t do this because you will regret it next summer!

Pests Are Writhe

Winter and autumn also see many pests coming out to find their home, especially snails and slugs. The problem with rotten fruit and fallen leaves is that slugs and snails will bed down in them for the winter and will once again affect next year’s growth and the health of the tree.

Top Tip – attach sticky grease bands to the base of your trees to stop winter months laying their eggs there.

Adding the preventative techniques will also “prevent the wingless female moths that emerge from pupae in the soil in November, from crawling up the tree to the branches”, Express. Any eggs that are laid on your trees will eventually hatch and will be looking for anything to feed on, including your spring blossoms. They can also eat the growth of any surrounding trees or plants like your roses and shrubs.

Planting New Fruit Trees

When it comes to planting trees, Arboricultural Services Treework Ltd here in Manchester and Stockport are experts. We suggest the best time of the year to be planting your fruit trees is in the October to December time but make sure that you are well aware of how large the roots are so that when it comes to summer, you aren’t left with a tree you can’t control.

This is also the best time to prune your trees so that you can get a good and fair cycling of fruiting wood. By making sure they are well pruned by our experts you be sure to have a productive tree when summer comes around that is perfectly shaped for growth.

Top Tip – “Trees can suffer cold damage in winter and spring, which may affect fruit production” so keep an eye on this all year round (RHS).

Get in Touch

To find out more about how to care for your fruit trees or to ask our advice with your growth, call us on 0161 456 0989. We provide pruning at the most suitable times of year, so what are you waiting for?