permaculture

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

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