I have a fruit tree, what do I trim?

Happy April everyone! We have two great questions this month.

To start us off we have QUESTION 1.“I have a fruit tree what do I trim it?”

The birds are singing and the sun is shining! SPRING is here, we are getting back into gardening!

March and April are a great time to be trimming your fruit trees. During the first year of the tree I would not trim anything so that the tree can easily establish itself without too much stress. A recently planted fruit tree, a year after planting, is best for nurturing it into the shape you want. If you prune trees when they’re young, the tree has an easier time healing smaller wounds versus trimming a tree when it’s older and running the risk of infecting a wound. You want to trim them at the beginning and not when it’s a bigger more mature tree because there’s more risk of danger to the tree.

Trim them when it’s cold or when the sap isn’t running, that way it will stress them the least. I like to trim any young branches that go inward or cross over each other. Decide where your main branches will be and cut any smaller branches. You want your fruit streets to be airy and allow light in. Avoiding it from becoming too dense with foliage and be sure to use nice sharp pruners and cut on a bit of an angle so that water doesn’t sit where you have made the cut and promote rot. When you open up the canopy of the tree it helps ripen the fruit from all angles. The smaller branches are referred to as suckers, by keeping them on the tree you will have less fruit production. Cutting them off pushes the plant to make more fruit.

Be sure to avoid having two codominant stems as the main trunk. If you have that, it may split the tree in a big windstorm in the future once the tree is older. I would cut back the smaller main stem, which is an easy fix at this stage of the trees young life. One main tree limb to rule them all.

QUESTION 2. “How do I keep ants off my fruit trees?”

You can use used coffee grounds around the base of the tree. The potent smell of the coffee grounds will mess with the ants’ ability of smell and make it more difficult to find the fruit. You do have to replace it regularly though.

Another way to keep them off is sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the base of the tree. Diatomaceous earth is natural, crushed mineral dust, making a ring around the base of the plant will get in the exoskeleton of the ants, and we’ll break down them not allowing them to get the plant. This too has to be reapplied if it rains. Another way to avoid the ants getting to the fruit is wrapping the base of the tree with packing tape. This makes like a little barrier so it’s hard for them to get through. Putting the non-sticky side touching the tree trunk with the sticky side out.

If you would like me to answer one of your questions next month you can send your question to me at [email protected] attention Ask Anna and be sure to stop by Harvest on the corner of Vincent Massey and Powerdam and also at 75 Cornwall Centre Road to pick up your copy of The Seeker each month.