During the winter months, before buds start to swell, is an opportune time to inspect your fruit trees for disease or pest problems. No leaves or fruit block your view.
This applies to all pome (apple and pear) and stone fruit trees grown here in the Yakima Valley. After inspecting for problems, while you still have your head in the middle of things, go ahead and do some annual pruning to keep your trees healthy.
Pick a nice day with little wind to make it as enjoyable as possible (as every day should be in your garden). In our area, February and early March are ideal.
Start by inspecting the graft union that is on the trunk, usually 2 to 4 inches above ground level. That union shows as a swelling where the rootstock was joined with the fruit-bearing wood of your particular variety. If any collar suckers (vertical side branches) roots are present coming from the side of, or beneath, the union, remove them close to the graft union, but take care not to cut into the graft. Remember to spray your pruning tools with a bleach/clean water mix (10% bleach) before each cut. That will help prevent spreading disease from one branch to another. No sealing paint is needed. The tree will heal the wound by spring.
Next, follow up the trunk to see if there are any signs of disease or insect damage. If you aren’t familiar with identifying diseases or insect damages, purchase a reference book for backyard orchards and study the chapters on disease and insects.
Additional information can be found on the web, but go to university sites when possible. Washington State University Extension has accurate information available at little or no cost.
Again, winter months are also perfect for researching diseases and pests, when it’s too cold to be in your home orchard. Fun!
If you do identify problems and can remove the affected wood, remove the damaged area with sharp pruners or a saw and burn the waste (preferable), or deliver affected branches to a waste facility. Infected limbs can re-infect your trees, so don’t pile them for later disposal or discard them where they won’t be destroyed along with any over-wintering pests or disease. And, as always, disinfect your tools with a bleach spray.
To keep your trees healthy and free of wounds, remove any branch that rubs against another branch, keeping the branch that best balances with the tree shape. (You should aim for a standard tree to be vase-shaped with branches growing toward the outside.) Crossed branches can create a wound in the bark where diseases and pests have easy entry.
You should also thin (remove) crowded branches to open up the tree so that light can penetrate the canopy and help color your fruit during ripening. Removing a limb or two each winter will not hurt the tree, but will help keep it vigorous and healthy for years to come.
Training systems
Commercial growers have several different training systems they use to produce fruit efficiently, and you can use any one of them in your backyard orchard if you wish. Experimenting can heighten your gardening pleasure, but for most gardeners, a simple system that requires no trellising is cheapest and effective, even if fruiting may be delayed a year.
For information on trellising systems, contact WSU Extension, or research tree fruit trellis systems.
Additional help in pruning and disease and pest control is usually available on university sites that have horticulture programs. Two from Washington State University:
• Pruning fruit trees: https://extension.wsu.edu/maritimefruit/pruning-tree-fruit-the-basics/
• Pruning and training systems: http://treefruit.wsu.edu/orchard-management/pruning-and-training-systems/
Grafting new varieties
If you have a fruit variety that you wish to graft onto a less-desirable variety of the same fruit (for yourself or a friend), save some of the preferred variety prunings in a refrigerator until early spring. Grafting works best if your scion wood is new growth (1-year-old wood), is straight, and has narrow vegetative buds. Avoid wood with spurs that branch out with buds for fruit. Also, limit the branch diameter to one-quarter to one-half inch.
You may also want to try grafting a pollenizer on your tree to help ensure bee pollination (like a crabapple for apple trees). February or early March is the best time to collect scion wood from the desired tree. Be sure to identify the species on the cuttings, especially if you have pruned more than one variety to graft.
Finally, scion wood of antique or cider apples are available on the web and are easily grafted onto existing trees. Use a reliable online nursery source to order what you may want to graft on to your existing trees.
Growing fruit trees, especially apple or pear trees, can be fun and successful, but understand that you are required to monitor pests carefully. An outbreak of codling moth, for example, from an untended backyard orchard can cause heavy losses in our Valley.
Furthermore, WSU Extension personnel encourage you to use a training system that will maintain a maximum 10-foot tree. That allows growers to monitor
and harvest their crops without the use of a ladder. Ladders are the No. 1 cause of accidents in orchards.
Dormant sprays
Winter is the time to spray horticultural oils, copper and sulfur on your fruit trees to help control everything from codling moth to diseases throughout the growing season. The oil will smother overwintering insects and eggs, the lime sulfur will control fungal diseases, and the copper will take care of fungal diseases that the sulfur will miss. Best of all, these controls are low risk and registered for organic use.
A good timetable for these sprays is:
Spray copper in fall around Thanksgiving.
Spray sulfur in early January. Spray a second application mixed with horticultural oil about two weeks later.
Then in mid- to late February, make another copper spray.
Spray superior or horticultural oil when temperatures are above freezing and before bud break.
Don’t mix copper and sulfur in the same tank.
Spray after winter pruning so that newly cut wood is protected while healing.
For more information, visit https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/get-leg-fruit-tree-problems-dormant-oils
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Master Gardeners: Winter is good time to get fruit trees ready for spring - Yakima Herald-Republic
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