It’s so simple and effortless. You sprinkle a few handfuls of granules on the tree, water, and you’re done. But don’t do this to trees in the summer. “Fast nitrogen does not benefit trees at all, at least at this time,” says gardener Karel Maroušek in the podcast.
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Some would fertilize the trees all season long, others leave them to fend for themselves. Neither is entirely good, and the right thing to do is to find a certain balance between the two. “When you pamper a tree with fast nitrogen and phosphorus from industrial fertilizers, it will not want to establish relationships with friendly soil microorganisms,” says Karel Maroušek, an hourly gardener and also a fruit tree care lecturer, in the podcast. Therefore, keep nitrogen as much as possible for spring support and in summer entrust the nutrition purely to nature. That is, with a little help from you.
Careful with nitrogen
Not that there is anything wrong with nitrogen fertilization. Trees benefit even if you want to avoid industrial fertilizers, for example, urea in horse manure contains it. It is important to give the fruit trees this nutrition in the spring. “However, in July and August, nitrogen pushes the trees to a vigorous growth that they no longer need,” explains the expert. “The new growths then do not have time to mature, they can freeze and are more susceptible to the growth of fungal diseases.”
Mulch as a solution
According to Marousek, other care is much better, not only in summer. “I’m not a supporter of having grass around the trees, because it forces the chippers to come closer and can damage the trees. Weeds, on the other hand, take nutrients and moisture,” calculates the gardener. According to him, the best solution is to mulch the space under the trees. If you do it right, you will fertilize the tree right away.
Avoid mulching right next to the tree trunk. On the contrary, it should breathe, and the gardener recommends planting a few undemanding perennials, for example, wild strawberries. Then spread the mulch itself in a circle up to a few centimeters away. “At the same time, I try to protect the earth against evaporation and supply nutrients,” describes Karel Maroušek.
A guaranteed method
The procedure is quite simple. Start with some chips on the bottom, “Add to it, for example, a half-decomposed mixture of leaves and twigs dug from under bushes, fresh or, conversely, imperfectly burned wood, wood ash. This is a wonderful hotel for microorganisms,” explains the gardener.
Add stones to the bottom layer, around which moisture condenses and does not evaporate from the soil. “I then gradually add a bit of dried grass clippings, straw or other fresh wood to these doughnuts,” adds the expert. All this slowly decomposes and constantly fertilizes the soil around the tree. And actually almost without a job.
