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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] "Repairing" winter kill apple & pear trees

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  • From: Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] "Repairing" winter kill apple & pear trees
  • Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:21:18 -0400

Certainly, no more nitrogen now. Fertilizers containing nitrogen are best applied at the very beginning of the season in northern areas.

If you are in a place which is subject to drought, it's best to make sure that your trees have enough water to grow up to fall and then no watering. Untimely rainfall after drought may stimulate late growth and late dormancy. Avoid too much weed competition in the summer if the weather is droughty.

An application of seaweed foliar spray (not too much) might help build up solutes in the sap. This is informed speculation on my part.

Making sure that your trees do not suffer from lack of P or K as well as trace elements would help. I think compost and mulch are best, but would act over several years. Organic mulches tend to increase K in the soil.
Adequate balanced Ca and Mg would likely help a bit. Have you had your soil tested?

If apple trees are involved, keeping the scab down will help the trees accumulate nutrients and improve winterhardiness.

Don't prune after mid-July. If you think you should cut out wood that you are sure is dead, do it now.

Poor soil drainage decreases cold hardiness. Poor air drainage will also cause trouble.

Cold winters without adequate snow cover can affect rootstocks especially those of marginal coldhardiness.

Top grafting a branch of a very hardy cultivar into the tree has been reported to induce earlier dormancy in some cases. The specific cases I read of were with Prunus species.

For replanting, the selection of hardy cultivars and rootstocks is important.

If you want to grow a cultivar which is marginally coldhardy in your area, topworking it on a hardy framework will help the tree recover quickly from any damage it may suffer. Tests in New Brunswick many years ago showed a great advantage in cumulative yield with apples.

You don't say where you are, what you are growing or anything about your soil and situation; it would have been better to give this information.

The North Amercian Fruit Explorers list would likely be able to give you better advice than this one, both on coldhardiness and on tree propagation; see
http://www.nafex.org

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada



Stephen Sherman wrote:
This last winter was a hard one for the orchard. Winter came on with little or no fall and started with temps near 0F and 50mph winds. The winter was cold and long as well. Additionally some deer "pruned" many of the trees in late summer/early fall which caused them to start re-growing just before the cold snap. And I was probably a bit too generous with N fertilizer in last spring leading to prolonged/late growth period.

All in all a bad combo for the fruit trees. Any one would not have been much of a problem, but all three really knocked them for a loop. About 15% (mostly young ones and stone fruits) died outright. Many died on their upper parts, but are leafing out on their lowest branches/trunk. The bigger/older trees only show dead branches at their tips. However none of the trees which made it are growing well. Few leaves, and only 3" of growth (whereas usually they would be at 6-8" of growth by now). And I notice that the buds at the end of the branches are just now starting to burst and leaf out. Clearly they are stressed.

So my question, is anyone familiar with proper techniques for helping fruit trees to recover from winter kill? Obviously replace the dead ones, but what if anything can be done for the stressed live ones. I've resisted putting a bunch more hi N fertilizer on, although that will improve growth this year it will likely cause a repeat of last years winter kill. Would hi P or K fertilizers be helpful? Other things?

TIA




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