Hello,
About 1/2 of my trees did not bloom very much this year and I’m dissapointed in the production. My old philosophy was not to fertilizer bearing trees at all.
I think I need to change that plan.
I have some 46-0-0 (I think) coated urea. I also have some 18-6-12 9 month fertilizer.
I also have a nutrien ag solutions nearby.
Is it too late to apply fertilizer?
Thanks for any advice
Good question. What’s currently on the ground under the canopies of your trees? If grass or bare dirt, I’d be tempted to add a layer of mulch and a light sprinkling of 18-6-12 once every March or so.
Around here (N Arkansas), a spring or late summer application of urea would invite fire blight.
Your trees are in more or less full sun?
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These trees are mulched with wood chips. Trees are in full sun.
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Did they produce last year?
They did not produce last year because late frost killed all the blossoms.
I rely on a 6 inch deep/8 foot wide woodchip mulch to feed my trees. How deep and wide are your mulch rings?
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In my part of the world it is necessary to sometimes fertilize apple trees. I used composted cow manure. Apples also need calcium like from old oak leaves. I usually top dress the composted manure with wood chips.
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Applying to much nitrogen induces vigor to the point were you sacrifice blooms. If it bloomed extensively the year before and you didn’t thin out the apples it will flower every other year.
My apple trees are small but bloomed nicely this year. It is full of apples that I need to thin.
I would suggest what Tom Spellman does. Low N and high P&K. That has worked for me since Instarted doing that.
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To me it would really depend on how they’ve been growing, not just the amount of blooms. I think you should expect them to bear well after taking “a year off” from fruiting, so it does sound like something is out of balance. If they didn’t carry fruit last year, did you see a lot of vegetative growth? I would use how strongly they grew as my guide.
If they had really strong vegetative growth last year, I think it is possible they are getting too much fertility and growing more than blooming. I believe @alan has mentioned trees can get too much fertility from mulch breaking down over many years of application. So if they grew super strong, I wouldn’t do anything and might even pull back the mulch to try to give them a little less of the “good life” and maybe even some summer pruning. If they had good but not overly strong vegetative growth last year, I would give them something with fairly low nitrogen, so something like inexpensive 5-10-10 now and again around midsummer, just tossed on top of the mulch and let the rain do the work. If growth was a bit weak last year, even while they weren’t supporting fruit, I would think they could use more nitrogen and would go ahead and give them the 18-6-12 time release that you already have. And if growth seemed really weak last year, I would go ahead and give them some urea now and then add the time release in a few weeks to support them through the rest of the season.
I don’t think it is too late to fertilize, although I guess there is a chance that you might increase fruit drop of what is actually set this year. I’m not an expert, but that’s just what I would look for and what I’d do. I generally don’t fertilize fruit trees, but my carmine jewels were looking weak last year after fruiting heavily for many years and I gave them more N and they are full of fruit while still putting on good growth again.
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I went out and measured last years growth on some of these trees. It looks like not much. 6-10 inches of growth. I went into Nutrien Ag Solutions and they recommended I apply 12-12-12- right now and they sold me a bag.
Unbelievable price btw $18 for 50 pounds.
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I think that was a good choice. The reason i dont recommend it usually is because fertilizer gives trees lots of nutrients right now but none later. That is a great short term solution. Manure and compost last years. The trees likely needed that boost right now as well.
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I have used manure before but I don’t have any livestock. It costs some money to get it delivered. Fertilizer was just easier.
It is easy to get wood chips delivered for free here so I will be putting down lots of mulch. I think that helps too.
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My 2 cents. If they are mulched they don’t need additional fertilizer.
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I think the key nutrient there is water, because humus holds so much available water. Yes, it also releases a good bit of N and other nutrients but it is well known that constantly moist soils while fruit is in the last 3 weeks of ripening (or so) tends to create big, bland fruit. Plums may be an exception to this based on my experience of growing fruit in many orchards that have sprinkler systems for lawns (ugh!). Ample water is required for humus to release a lot of N anyway.
If you live where it doesn’t tend to rain much during the ripening process, this shouldn’t be an issue- you can control it with deficit irrigation.
I think that is generally true for apples for home growers not seeking the biggest fruit and fine tuning for annual production, but probably not in all soils and especially if the tree shows signs of N deficiency that you are trying to quickly correct. Mulch will tend to immediately supply available K in excess but the N won’t come until much later.
Too much K in the soil may encourage bitter pit or corking (I can’t tell the difference and don’t care) in susceptible apple varieties because it can interfere with absorption of calcium for apples. I do not mulch my apple trees once they are established… they get what they need even when competing with mowed sod.
That said, some quick release N in very late summer or early spring may serve the apple spur leaves in a way that not only leads to bigger but not more watery fruit (greater cell division not larger cells of fruit) but also to annual bearing, because it allows spur leaves (the fruit deciders) to store more energy in spring. It is a routine procedure for commercial growers, as I understand it. Sometimes they use foliar.
A short term boost to N in spring helps all the species I grow. I can use my own urine in my orchard for stone fruit but I don’t use it for apples because of all of the available potassium in it. Honey Crisp, Jonagold, Pink Lady, and even Goldurush are susceptible to fruit rots, the first two about every year here the last on wet summers. I simply spread a little urea at the base of trees in early spring before rain.
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I should copy that and put it in guides. I have re-written it so many times on posts here.
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Thanks for bringing that up. I agree with most of what you said even in this slightly different climate its true. Those of us who know how to grow fruit take a lot for granted. I think it was worth mentioning the water being an important factor. Nitrogen boosts growth as you say early in the year and should never be used later than July or August here. The woodchips over time make a huge difference here on my property. The first batch of chips really are just for moisture conservation. Once they break down they add a lot of nutrients. In my area i.want more p, k and less n due to fireblight.
I think late summer apps are especially useful if you want to use a ground app to get N into the spur leaves as early as possible for next spring’s fruit.
Why do you think N should never be applied later than July?
I still see that rec in gardening articles for backyard growers, usually suggesting it threatens or delays the hardening off process. I’m guessing you are talking about pear trees and fear of FB, but any fruit tree you want to grow is unlikely to experience bad branch kill due to a late surge in growth, IME. Anyway, I would think spring apps would be more provoking of FB than later.
I’ve had plums lose late growth shoots from a Sept sugre in growth, but it only lost what it gained during the burst and trees were otherwise more than fine.
I suspected that to be a myth, or only true in some situations years ago observing my nursery trees after mid-summer droughts followed by Sept. rain. These are young trees so as susceptible as can be to frost cambium kill and yet a Sept-Oct growth surge has proven to only harm that growth in J. plum trees while failing to create frost damage even on late growth for other species.
Perhaps I should ask CHAT about the existing state of the research. Maybe in other climates it can be more of a problem than here.
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Bearing trees need to be treated different from trees going through vegetative growth. Bearing trees need more K, some P, and relatively less N. No one-size-fits-all fertilizing method will work long term. It will eventually throw something out of balance.
Late fall fertilizing is an example where conventional wisdom has been proven wrong time and again. Pecan was often stated to never fertilize after the 1st of July. When it was tested in controlled conditions on bearing trees, it was found that a tree which produced a large crop of nuts benefited immensely from addition of fertilizer immediately after harvest. My take is that conventional wisdom is often true, but sometimes wrong.
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In my experience, we get no moisture that late in the year. When the moisture finally comes in September or October, it hits the tree with fertilizer, eg. nitrogen at the totally wrong time of year. When the tree should be sleeping, it is getting excess nutrients. Pears dont need much fertilizer at all, if ever. Apples on my property are very heavy feeders. Fertilizer applications need to be aligned with weather patterns. Many people watering throughout the year are only giving their trees shallow root systems. If you water as trees truly need it, that won’t be a problem.
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