How to Maintain a Fruit Garden

Fruit gardens are attractive, and you get the reward of the eating and sharing the results of your hard work after growing season. Once you've read these tips, you can maintain a garden, trees and bushes. Impress your friends and neighbors with great tasting produce from your garden.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Maintain Fruit Trees

1. Keep up the soil. Apply proper nutrients based on your soil type, but do not overfertilize.

2. Water well and often. Water your trees after feeding them during growing season. Make sure the roots get a deep soak.

3. Prune trees correctly. Remove damaged wood in late winter and prune in summer to encourage fruit bearing spurs.

4. Feed your trees in early spring. Use either tree spikes or liquid garden food.

5. Get rid of worms to maintain the tree's health. In early spring, spray the trees with liquid fruit tree spray for insect control. Apply again right before the buds begin to appear and then right after the leaves have fallen.

Maintain Fruit Bushes

6. Cover strawberry beds before they begin to turn color. Use 8-inch boards around the bed and cover netting over the top. Use nails around the border to attach to the netting for easy removal.

7. Use straw around your strawberry bushes. Straw helps maintain the soil's moisture, reduces weeds and protects them from disease spores.

8. Build a cover for blueberries. These berries grow to over 6 feet high so the cover should be built to cover completely. Four wood posts can surround the bush along with netting surrounding and covering the base.

9. Protect cherry trees with netting. An alternative is to use number 40 black thread that is distributed all around the tree. Birds that fly around your garden will realize that they will get entangled in the thread and avoid the area.

10. Place sections of netting over grape vines and secure with wooden stakes or rocks. The netting should be cut in large sections to anticipate the growth throughout the season.

Tips & Warnings

• Look for new disease resistant trees to reduce the need for spraying for diseases.
• Pick strawberries when pink to 3/4 full colored to ensure they are not overripe. Leaving the fruit longer means it can be easily damaged and can decay more quickly after being picked. Leave the stem on it to extend its shelf life.
• Avoid spraying insecticides during blooming season. These sprays can kill bees that are needed for pollination

[HermitPaws]

on 7/19/2008 What about Vine Fruits???