Pomona Fruits’ Top Tips for Spring Tree Care

Spring – The Critical Season

Spring is an important time for growers of tree fruit because it is during this season that blossom begins to open, stimulated by rising temperatures and longer hours of daylight. It’s an exciting and heartwarming time – even the most city-loving urban dweller can’t help but feel that special buzz of seasonal optimism when the plants come into bloom. As a gardener, you should be cautious at this time – spring is when your fruit trees will pollinate, and a successful pollination is the most significant factor in whether your crop will be productive or not.

Usually, the first trees to come into flower are peaches, apricots and nectarines, all of which evolved in a warm, temperate or Mediterranean climate. In this country, frost is a distinct likelihood in early spring, and it can damage the blossom on these tender trees before pollination has the chance to occur. If yours are small, you can help protect them by wrapping the whole specimen in horticultural fleece overnight, a method which is sadly impractical for larger examples. For these, a useful trick is to delay mulching and keep the grass around the base of the tree mown very short, since bare earth radiates useful amounts of heat, far more than grass or mulch. Some gardeners even thread strands of old-fashioned incandescent fairy lights through the branches, and illuminate them at night to keep the temperature near the flowers above freezing point.

Even when you have successfully protected blossoms from frost, your springtime work may be far from done. If your fruit trees come into bloom before insect pollinators have started to get busy, you will need to manually transfer pollen from the male to the female flower parts using a soft brush. For a good crop of fruit, it is advisable to do this throughout the flowering period.

For more advice, visit pomonafruits.co.uk

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