Keeping Your Fruit Crops Healthy
Unlike vegetable crops, which share many of the same pests, fruit plants are affected by a wide variety of insects and diseases. Because fruit are borne on so many types of plants, they have a wide range of cultural requirements as well. However, regardless of the crop you are growing, there are basic steps you can take to help to control insects and diseases.
Full Sun is a must for nearly all fruit crops; even 1 or 2 hours of shade a day may result in smaller crops and less-flavored fruits. Well-drained soil is also essential - if you find that drainage is a problem, then plant in raised beds. A location near the top of a gentle slope is ideal. A north-facing slope will help delay spring flowering, which is a plus where frost damage is common.
While good air circulation helps reduce disease problems, blustery winds in open areas or on hilltop can make training difficult, knock fruit off trees early, or topple trees altogether. To encourage growth, space plants far enough apart so they won’t grow into each other or nearby plants.
Planning Fruit and Berry Trees
Fruit trees and berry trees are a long-term investment. Before you plant, learn about the types of fruit suitable to your local climate. It is important to establish sturdy, well-placed main branches while trees are young. Prune apples, pears, grapes, and berry trees in late winter or early spring before they break dormancy. Prune peaches, plums and cherries just after the buds burst in spring, when they are less prone to canker infection.
Fruit trees such as pear, apple, lemon, orange and the like, are lovely enough to be used as shade trees on the front lawn. Nut trees are often planted 10 feet apart each way, but better results are likely to be obtained at twelve feet apart. The intervening spaces may be filled with gooseberries, currants, or raspberries, or even vegetable crops, until the nut trees require all the ground to themselves.
Some Tips For Harvesting Your Fruit
Currants: In some gardens there is a practice of leaving red-currants to grow uncut; people say that they crop more heavily. However, the voice of experience proves that the fruit loses color and size; the bushes become lanky and flop about so that the fruits are mostly on the ground, splashed by rain and made easier prey for the birds.
A good tip is to cover a few currant bushes with burlap, so you can eat currants in August. Draping the bushes shades them, and you slow down the ripening process and delay the harvest.
Pears: Pears that ripen very soon after gathering are much improved by being taken from the tree before they are completely mature. Late-ripening varieties should stay on as long as possible. Some ripen better in a dark room, while others are best in full light. Check your variety to see what is best for you.
Many people are not aware of the great benefit of mulching, and the rapid and powerful effects of liquid manure. This treatment was tried on some dwarf pears - one tree, five years from starting and four feet high, bore 83 pears in one season!
Pickled Peaches: Peaches can be pickled and are very nice this way. Try the following recipe:
Pour sugar and vinegar into a large saucepan, and stir to dissolve sugar. Add cinnamon sticks and cloves, and bring to a boil. Cover and boil for about 5 minutes. Strain out the cloves and cinnamon sticks, or you can leave them in for a stronger flavor.
Pack peaches into hot sterile 1 pint jars to within 1 inch of the rim. Fill each jar with syrup to within 1/2 inch from the top. Wipe rims with a clean dry cloth, and seal with new lids and screwbands. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. Stores for about 6 months. Enjoy!
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