Grow Your Own Vegetable GardenA year in the Fruit Tree GardenWelcome to A year in our Fruit Tree Garden. Although this is presented as a season by season history over the 2009-2010 period, it will also provide handy links to information and downloadable pdf files that you can use to grow your own fruit trees. Our Fruit Trees are divided into 3 main areas, Citrus, Stone Fruit, and what we refer to as the Exotics.
In all we grow:
Citrus
Stone Fruit
Plus in Non Stone
Our Stone Fruit and Citrus orchards have been established for around 5 years or so, with a number of varieties grown on multigrafted trees for space and convenience. Let's look at them separately: Our Citrus trees have not been growing under the best conditions through their life so far, mainly because of competition for light and water. These has been from a number of fully grown Cypress trees at one end of the orchard and two nearby Eucalyptus trees and Poplar grove at the other. These conditions have changed in the last couple of years, with the Cypresses removed for safety reasons, the Poplars removed (they were on our neighbours property fence) being removed last year and the two gums will removed shortly as they are diseased. The removal of these so far has already shown a considerable improvement in the trees, in particular, our Ruby Red Grapefruit that we are finally starting to get fruit from, albeit in small amounts.
Winter 2009Citrus don't require a lot of attention. They bare fruit in Winter, flowering and developing fruit through the warmer months in Melbourne. When harvesting fruit, most can be picked by gently twisting. When ripe enough, the fruit will separate from the tree readily. Mandarins however, should always be cut off the tree as they will either tear off the branch, or rip the fruit skin open. As our trees are relatively young, they need little to no pruning which would normally be only required to keep the trees shape and health. Citrus are fed twice a year, once at the end of Winter/early Spring and the second time at the height of our Summer in February. Citrus are hungry feeders, so don't skimp on this routine and you'll be rewarded with beautiful fruit. We rotate between two types of fertiliser, a commercially available Citrus food at the end Winter and a feed of chicken manure in Summer.Although we don't normally use much in the way of commercial fertilisers, Citrus have quite specific needs, particularly in trace elements and a commercial blend is the easiest way to accomodate the plants. As the temperatures begin to rise, grass growth will take off again and if possible, you should removed grass from around the base of the trees to minimise competition. If you have established trees, be careful not to go digging as you can easily damage the root systems close to the surface. A better alternative is to mulch heavily (not up against the trunk though) and exclude all light from the grass which will die off and compost.
Now is the time to deal with preventing Cherry slug and Coddling moth before it's too late. If you are in a particularly cool climate and your nectarine and peach trees have begun to show signs of life, there may JUST be enough time to get a Copper spray in to treat any leaf curl if you had any last year. This time of year is also your last chance of squeezing a late planting of bare rooted fruit trees, but only just. You need to consider the specific conditions of your area. If you have had problems with Cherry slug and or coddling moth, rather than spray the trees after the infestation shows, apply a "glue" bandage to the trunk. This will trap any emerging pupae in the ground stopping them getting to the tree canopy to wreak havoc.
Spring 2009CitrusCitrus start to settle down over the Spring season. Some of the later varieties may still be fruiting. We still have an abundance of Tangelos, the neverending lemons, some oranges and 5 ruby grapefruit!
With the increase in rains in Spring(if you get them)and the increasing temperatures, keep an eye out for black sooty mould, scale and ants in the garden. Removing the scale is the best way to control all three as the scale excrete a sticky residue that attracts the ants and encourages the mould.
Stone fruit orchardMost orchard activity at this time of year is occurring in the Stone fruit trees. Because of the number of trees and varieties, some multigrafted, some multiplanted, there is always something going on.
We've already seen a number of the trees start and finish blossoming. Followed by a flush of new leaf growth. Here the Apricot comes into blossom. Last year we had a very large crop and still haven't used all the preserved fruit. Some was frozen, some bottled the rest eaten fresh or given away. Plums 
We have two plum trees that share a single planting spot. This basically puts the trees in competition with other and keeps them at a more manageable size. The two different varieties have different fruiting times, so here one is in the middle of blossom and the other as can be seen below, has pollinated flowers and fruit beginning to develop.
I'm a bit dubious about this pair this year. We got a reasonable crop of peaches, considering the size and age of the trees (we have two varities, one a cling stone, one a free stone), but the Nectarine, well one of them has battled with leaf curl for a couple of years. We missed our window to spray it this year and the tree's development has suffered. See the pests and diseases page to read up on leaf curl. 
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