Necessary maintenance before winter: how to take care of the orchard?

An orchard is a plot of land that is entirely dedicated to fruit trees, in contrast to a garden, where fruit trees are scattered over a larger area, and there are also other areas that are used as ornamental beds, rest areas, various buildings stand on them, and so on. The maintenance and care of the orchards is therefore easier because it is concentrated in one place.

Autumn cleaning

The basis of the good health of fruit trees in small-scale cultivation is mainly the prevention of diseases and the maximum effort to maintain the state of health without excessive interventions with chemical means – in the words of production agriculture, it is practically integrated protection in small. The principle is to use mechanical methods of tree care as much as possible, which aim to prevent the spread and survival of diseases in the form of spores. It belongs here fruit picking – both infected and healthy, which quickly become infected on damp ground or in grass. The last one is also essential mowing the grass. First of all, it will enable easy picking of fruits, but also fast raking leaves. If it is healthy, you can put it in the compost, make a leaf out of it or use it to mulch flower beds or bowls under trees. However, if the trees suffer to a greater degree from, for example, moniliosis or scab (pit trees), monilio blight (cherries), curling (peach trees) or pit fungus (apple trees), the leaves must be dug up and removed from the garden. It is not advisable to miss these autumn works, especially in old orchards, when the large crowns of trees provide a lot of shade, the soil under the trees with poor sun does not dry out and the moisture remains there – a basic condition for the survival of spores of various fungal diseases. Mowing and digging can be postponed until November, during warm long autumns the trees keep their leaves for a long time and the grass grows to the border of meteorological winter, especially in lower locations.

Frost is both a helper and an enemy

In our climatic regions, native trees are genetically prepared for a drop in temperature. Even if it doesn’t look like it, if it’s “freezing hard,” that’s good news for fruit trees. They are only threatened by a sudden drop of tens of degrees or temperature fluctuations, which will stimulate them to sprout and then subsequently the flowers will freeze. If you have a garden where you encounter the phenomenon of premature sprouting and the subsequent loss of flowers more often (apricots and peaches suffer from this phenomenon most often), one possibility is to gradually replace them late onesvarieties – because they not only ripen later, but above all sprout later. The difference is seven to 14 days, and this is already known (examples of late varieties of apricots: ´Darina´, ´Harcot´, ´Hargem´, ´Sirena´, ´Koolgat´; peaches: ´Cresthaven´, ´Redhaven´, ´Krasava´, ´Harrow Beauty´ or ´Iskra´). It still has meaning bleaching of trunkswhich, especially in early spring, inhibits the formation of frost cracks, when the conductive meshes (chaff) stored under the bark are torn during sudden warming.

Frost has a phytosanitary effect, so it has a beneficial effect on the garden. It mainly destroys the eggs of pests, if they are not specially hidden behind the scales of buds or bark. It will help, for example, with the eggs of snails, aphids, whiteflies or whiteflies, and in orchards it reduces the number of eggs of weevils, weevils or weevils, hidden just below the soil surface. The greenhouse or steam room is left to freeze. For the same reason, black non-woven fabric is also removed from beds of thermophilic vegetables. Older fruit trees are not specially protected against frost, the trunks of young trees can be covered with mats or burlap, but only in the first year after planting. Well-rooted plants are no longer threatened by frost.

Don’t forget the birds

An indispensable component of the “nature friendly” set is the support of useful organisms, most often birds. It is advisable to support titmice and blackbirds, nuthatches, and shrews, i.e. species that consume animal pests, all year round. Give them a chance in the spring safe nestingwhich includes not only the installation of booths, but also conscientious protection from cats. Before winter, the booths are repaired and cleaned, on the contrary, different types are hung up feeder. Remember that you are not feeding the birds to watch them from the living room window, but to make the nesting pairs permanently settle in the garden. And that will be especially where you can’t see them. So a daily expedition with a bucket of feed to a more remote part of the garden, or to an orchard, should become a regular part of the routine of the winter weeks. Don’t forget the fruit-eating species, such as blackbirds, blackbirds, brkoslavs and woodpeckers – leave them some fruit on the trees and on the ground – be careful, but only healthy ones, no “mummies”.

Pruning

Winter pruning is understood as work aimed at the fundamental rejuvenation and reduction of the crown of older fruit trees. They were once a fixed part of orchard maintenance – tall trees commonly lived to be fifty or seventy years old. Today, if you have lower and less tall shapes planted, it is not done as often. But, for example, on a cottage where you have old vegetation, pruning can be done. It is often the first step if the trees are overgrown, neglected and have not been illuminated for a long time and therefore do not bear fruit.

Principles of pruning:

• it is carried out during growth dormancy
• but the temperature must not drop significantly below the freezing point (up to -3 °C)
• the reduction must not exceed 1/3 of the volume of the crown, a more significant cut is spread over two to three years
• larger cut surfaces must be coated with paint or wax
• strong and long branches must first be cut with a short opposite cut so that they do not “snap” or even break when they fall after being cut

Mechanical pest control

Intervention against fruit tree pests is relatively difficult, mainly because their development goes through several phases that are territorially separated from each other. Elsewhere you will find eggs, larvae or caterpillars move further, then pupate, then the adults fly out and complete the development cycle. For example, feared cherry propeller (Cherry rhagolets), which looks like a large fly with yellow spots on its body as an adult, lays its eggs in pricked fruits in May and June, where they develop into small larvae. After the fruits fall to the ground, the adult larvae climb out, move to the soil, where they pupate at a depth of about three centimeters. In the spring, the adult insects fly out of the pupae and lay eggs in the young hatchlings again. From this it is clear that you can break the cycle several times, namely:

1. yellow glue boards spaced in the crown will capture the adults
2. clear space under the trees and daily collection of fallen fruit will prevent the transfer of larvae to the soil
3. hens and birds can dig and peck the larvae out of the soil, digging or cultivating with a rotavator will also help (ploughing in large professional plantations)
4. choosing a more suitable early variety will also prevent fruit attack5. specific weather patterns sometimes ensure that fry are established outside of the spawning period (earlier)

Related articles

Also the propeller, but walnut…

The same development cycle has i walnut propeller(Completa Ragoletis), a pest that appeared in our country only in the last decade. It attacks the pericarp of the nuts, which it degrades – even in this case, it is necessary to carefully collect the fallen black fruits and rake and remove the walnut leaves so that they do not lie under the tree during the winter. Its compact non-degradable layer will allow the larvae to pupate safely in the soil and fly out again in the spring.

Scraping old bark

It belongs to ecological methods with a long-term, not immediate effect. Behind the scales of the bark you will find many loaded eggs and larvae of various insects, often harmful. The titmice will convince you of this – you can notice that they often look at the strong skeletal branches and trunks, looking for this extremely valuable source of food for them. Scraping the old bark with a wire or rice brush during the dormant season will significantly reduce the number of aphids and other sucking insects during the season. However, it is necessary to work with sensitivity – loose old scales are released with light pressure, it is not possible to “strain” the branches or the trunk. The fallen material is collected on a lined paper or cardboard, then incinerated. This procedure is particularly suitable for core fruits, not for stone fruits, which are produced far less by detached bark scales.

Protection against taste

There is no reason for this protection in the city, but young trees near holiday cottages, for example, can be damaged by hares or roe deer. The use of plastic sleeves is quick, prompt and cheap. Another option is to wrap the stems with wire mesh. It is better to make a tube out of the mesh and secure it with four sticks so that the tree has enough space for its growth. Unlike a relatively narrow plastic sleeve, this method will protect the tree for several years.

About the author

Dagmar Cvrčková she graduated from the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Agriculture in Prague and is constantly devoted to plants, both useful and ornamental. She is most interested in topics related to soil, self-sufficiency, natural gardening and maintaining a healthy and functional landscape.

You could find this article in the magazine Recipe No. 11/25.