How to Save a Broken Fruit Tree

Damage to fruit trees can be caused by severe weather, wildlife and disease. If the tree goes without proper care, it can either yield small harvests or die. Its important to prune away the broken or diseased limbs, so the tree can focus on healthy growth. In addition, prevention measures are needed to ensure the tree doesn't get eaten by wildlife.

Instructions

1. Inspect your fruit tree for diseased fruit, leaves or fruit. Look for fruit scabs, discolored or spotty leaves, early defoliation, downward looped twigs and branch lesions.

2. Choose the right tools to use to prune away diseased and damaged areas of the tree. Use hand shears for small limbs, loppers for wood a half an inch in diameter, a pruning saw for portions over 1 inch in diameter and a pole pruner for pruning tall portions of the tree.

3. Dip your pruning tool in a mixture of 10 percent denatured alcohol and water when cutting off diseased branches to ensure you don't spread the diseases. Prune areas parallel and 6 inches from the growing branches to provide a smooth cut. Avoid leaving any stubs.

4. Pick up any diseased or rotting fruit off the ground. Rotting fruit will not only attract wildlife and insects, but it can also infect the tree with fungi spores. Treat the fruit tree with a fungicide if the tree has been infested with a fungus.

5. Build a fence around the fruit tree to keep deer and other wildlife from eating the bark and fruit. Place stakes around the fruit tree and attach chicken wire to stakes. Make sure the chicken wire goes to the ground to avoid wildlife from climbing underneath.

Tips & Warnings

• Severe pruning on a newly planted tree can cause a harvest delay of 1 or 2 years.

• Treat nearby fruit trees with fungicide, because their spores can travel to your cultivated fruit tree.

References

• Pruning Fruit Trees
• Fruit Tree Diseases