I think I may have made the biggest whopping mistake of my short gardening career. I very recently got inspired to start fixing my poor neglected orchard. I set about madly cutting all of the fruit trees back to a manageable size and then fed them some blood and bone. I awoke in the middle of the night last night and remembered reading somewhere that you don't fertilise trees immediately after cutting them, but wait till they have started sprouting new growth (ususally spring time). Does someone know whether by my misguided good intentions of getting in early I have in fact sent them to an early grave.?????
Hi jules. Relax, they won't die. There are a couple of things in your favour. You're right in that you shouldn't fertilise until spring but blood and bone doesn't break down and start working for about 6 weeks after application. B & B is also a mild fertiliser so I doubt it will kill them or cause any great damage. If your orchard has been negected for a while, if any blossoms appear this year, you should pick most of them off. Give the trees a chance to regain strength before strssing them again with fruit production. After you've build up the strength of the trees again, then go for it. BTW, how old are these trees?
Thanks so much for the positive advice. As for the age of the fruit trees, I am really not too sure. We bought the property a couple of years ago, and I have only just been afforded the luxury of spending lots of time in my paradise. All of the fruit trees were already in. In a very neglected state way back then. In fact on most of them, have the whole middle of the tree rotten and the side branches are the only ones with life in them. I was beginning to think that it was just the root stock coming through. However, my stone fruit trees did produce last year quite magnificently and so thought the possums and proceeded to eat all of the fruit. C'est La Vie. I will pick off all of the blossoms this year on everything and see how I go from there. Cheers
