December Fruit Tree To Do List

Fruit trees look kinda static, but they’re super dynamic! Hormones, enzymes, sugars – much goes on as they constantly adapt to the environment – wet, dry, windy, hot, cold, pest, pathogens, sprays, fertiliser…. add to that their innate push to grow you some delicious fruits and there’s alot going on! Fermented stinging nettle and comfrey tea is a well timed assist. I’ll walk you through in detail below.

Have a quick refresh through Novembers fruit tree to do’s – they all apply to December, so I wont repeat them here.

Improve your berry crop

Berries have a small window of perfection – grab them at their best with a daily harvest. A ripple effect occurs – this seemingly simple habit breaks cycles of disease and pest. And you get to max out on this incredible crop – homegrown, organic, fresh picked berries = super food! Let none go to waste! Get out every morning and remove the newly ripe – especially if wet weather is forecast.

A ripe berry with a tiny hole is a small victory. Left another day that tiny hole becomes several and now you’ve invited in a whole new guild of pest. Perhaps begun by a shield bug, taken over by earwigs and fruit flies = raspberries full of worms.

It’s tempting to harvest only the good and ignore the not so good, but its important to pick them all. Leaving the over ripe, holey, mouldy, funky ones leaves food and nesting sites for pests, and if disease is present – it’ll harbour that as well.

Picking them off is a simple way to break these cycles. I harvest with 2 bowls – one for the chooks and one for me.

Stinging nettle and comfrey tea

Fermented herbal teas are the kind of solution I love – easily made at home, deceptively potent and no negative fallout. At this time of year there are 2 in particular that come to the fore – nettle and comfrey, tag teaming to strengthen the foliage which in turn improves disease resilience by strengthening the leaf coating (cuticle).

Leaf cuticle, is a point of entry for pathogens, all of whom arrive in various ways. Some dissolve the cuticle with enzymes and sneak in that way, others are opportunistic – using openings created by wind/ pest/human.

Strengthening the foliage is simply done with the wunderkind duo of stinging nettle (urtica dioica) and comfrey (symphytum x uplandicum).

• Right about now, nettle is gearing up to seed and is at its peak silica content. Fancy silica being the mineral needed for this very job, at this very time. Nature aligns!

• Comfrey brings calcium (amongst other things), a key ingredient for fruit production. Adding it regularly from now on in, greatly reduces the stress that comes with low calcium levels.

Add a cup or 2 of your homemade fermented nettle and/ or comfrey tea, to your regular biological sprays. Monthly if all is well, or as much as weekly if your trees are stressed in any way.

If you have none to hand, never fear – make a brew today. Its super quick and easy and will be ready in about a week if weather is warm.

Make no mistake, these sprays aren’t the saving grace, rather the cherry on the top of your diverse, living garden. Trees themselves, are equipped with an almighty defence mechanism that kicks into action when pathogens come knocking, as long as the tree’s immunity is in peak condition.

Herbal sprays and other gentle inputs don’t have an instant visible impact, but they do add to steadily building and improving your overall system. Shift your focus in this direction with a few gentle, well timed nudges. That’s all your fruit trees need.

Citrus health check

How are your citrus trees looking? Healthy means a goodly sized canopy of flat, dark green foliage, a strong frame and a lush vibe. Their health has alot to do with how well you’ve chosen where they live and how well you’ve looked after the soil at their feet.

Can you see fungal threads throughout the mulch, and smell an enticing earthiness? Responding to poorly looking trees with bags of fert or loads of manure only brings sugar rich growths that seduce sucking insects and break the soil web.

If the pest pressure is beginning to build you have many natural options. A tree in good vigour can handle a degree of pests. Leaving them be calls in natural predators and strengthens the tree. Squashing or trapping is an excellent option when populations are larger, unless trees have poor vigour, in which case spray with Neem.

Stay keyed in on the action. If you choose to intervene, do so in as gentle a way as you can.

Check young trees

Test the soil beneath 1 and 2 year old trees, and water as required. Let them dry out a bit between waterings to encourage their roots to go deep and wide. A lovely woody mulch will help them go the distance, as will leaving the grass to grow up around them.