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How to Care for Fruit Trees

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Fruit trees are known to be generally low maintenance with the exception of needing protection from extreme cold. With very little care, most homeowners and gardeners will have an abundance of fruit for their table. However, if a fruit tree produces little fruit there are several techniques that can be employed to encourage additional fruit production. Most of these techniques involve nothing more than the addition of a properly balanced fertilizer and pruning.

Prune the fruit tree in the late winter to encourage additional branch and fruit growth in the spring. Prune branches from the top of the tree first, if they can be easily reached. Then prune any branches that contain sparse leaves or look at though they are malnourished. Try not to cut off any branches that contain small bud projections as these will produce fruit the next growing season. You can safely prune up to 50 percent of apple, cherry, peach and citrus trees. However, you should only prune about 10 percent of pear and plum trees. The pruned areas will begin to grow new green colored shoots during the next growing season but may not produce fruit until the second growing season.

Fertilize the tree with an all purpose 10-20-10 fertilizer to provide it with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Look for a fertilizer that is specially formulated for fruit trees. Do not just apply a normal lawn and grass fertilizer as this does not contain the proper concentration of nutrients. Apply the fertilizer onto the leaves of the tree using a liquid application as well as to the ground under it. Fertilize the ground out to the tree's drip line which is the length that the branches extend.

Spread mulch around the base of the fruit tree and mound it up around the base to a height of 3 to 4 inches. This provides an extra layer of protection from cold weather which could damage the tree and inhibit fruit production. In addition, mulch helps to prevent evaporation of water during dry hot months which the roots of the tree desperately need.

Following these suggestions for pruning, fertilizing and mulching fruit trees is the best way to keep them healthy. And keeping fruit trees healthy is the single best way to increase fruit yield. If you have a tree that is not producing as much fruit as you would like, it's quite likely that a little additional care is all the tree needs to become a top fruit producer.