Contents
Autumn top dressing of fruit trees is one of the mandatory seasonal procedures. A plant that has used up nutrients to produce fruits will “rest” the next year. For many gardeners in the past, the situation “this year is thick, next year it is empty” was normal due to the fact that there were no high-quality fertilizer preparations even on collective farms. And in private hands they were practically not sold. The use of less concentrated natural organic fertilizers just led to the fact that the trees “took time out”.
The importance of autumn feeding fruit trees
For the production of fruits, horticultural crops spend a lot of potassium and phosphorus, approaching wintering quite depleted. So that the tree does not “fatten”, nitrogen is limited to it in the summer, feeding it with potassium and phosphorus. As a result, by autumn, the plant needs autumn fertilizers for fruit trees. It is impossible to transfer the feeding time to spring, since the plant must also enter the winter full of strength.
Time must be calculated so that the plant has time to assimilate the applied nutrients. Fertilizers themselves should also be easily digestible.
Sometimes autumn feeding of fruit trees is carried out not in autumn, but in summer. It all depends on when the plant was harvested.
In autumn, a tree needs potassium and phosphorus not only to successfully endure frosts, but also to form buds for a future harvest. Without these elements, the plant will rest next year.
What fertilizers to apply in autumn under fruit trees: organic or mineral
The main need in autumn for horticultural crops is mineral fertilizers. Therefore, superphosphate and potassium sulfate are added under fruit trees in the fall when digging.
Sometimes, in late autumn, nitrogen fertilizers are applied simultaneously with potash and phosphorus fertilizers. But this is already a reserve for spring and such fertilizers should not be easily digestible. Therefore, humus or compost is used as nitrogen.
Ready-made mineral fertilizers
What is good about ready-made mineral fertilizers is that you do not have to wait for their gradual dissolution. The tree will spend quite a bit of time on their assimilation. It is enough to dissolve the finished product in the water that will be used to water the plant.
But in this easy assimilation there is a certain danger: ready-made fertilizers must be used in strict accordance with the instructions. Otherwise, they are easy to overdose.
Nitrogen provokes the growth of green mass and will be required by horticultural crops in the spring, when new shoots start growing. If you “give out” nitrogen top dressing in the fall, the tree may begin to drive out shoots that will inevitably freeze in winter. In spring, shoots and leaves will begin to grow after flowering. Thus, until spring, the tree does not particularly need nitrogen. For ready-made nitrogen fertilization of fruit trees, the best time is spring. The tree will have the opportunity to grow new shoots, but will not start growing until the fall.
Organic Fertilizers
These include “long-playing”:
- humus;
- compost;
- wood ash;
- bone flour;
- fertilizer slurry;
- chicken manure.
These fertilizers “give” nutrients to the soil for a long time and slowly. It is difficult to overdose them (unless it is fresh litter) and they are often applied in large quantities. At the same time, it is recommended to carry out autumn fertilizer with organic matter once every 2 years, that is, it takes at least two years to completely decompose the applied top dressing.
This explained the periodic “rest” of fruit crops in times of total shortage. In autumn, there was nothing to feed the crops except for humus, and there are not as many nutrients in organic matter as in ready-made industrial fertilizers, and they pass into the soil over a long period of time.
What to choose for your garden, only the owner decides. With the fashion for everything natural and organic, the garden owner will choose organic. If he needs a harvest, he will prefer ready-made preparations.
What are the feeding methods?
There are two ways to feed fruit trees in the fall: root and foliar. At the first, autumn fertilizers are applied to the ground over the entire area of the root system.
During autumn root dressing, organic fertilizers are mixed with the soil. Ready-made industrial ones are laid in dug holes according to a certain scheme:
- holes 20 cm deep;
- put potassium sulfate down;
- sprinkled with a layer of earth;
- superphosphate;
- fall asleep.
This whole structure is thoroughly spilled with water, at the same time carrying out moisture-charging irrigation.
Complex fertilizers
For fruit trees, complex fertilizers are used only in autumn or spring, when it is necessary to fill the soil. The rest of the time, such top dressing only harms.
Liquid fertilizer
The same ingredients are dissolved in water. This method is more convenient for two reasons:
- in late autumn, the tree will immediately receive the entire portion and retire;
- it is necessary to feed crops with early ripening fruits;
- you need to feed young seedlings of fruit trees with a poorly developed root system.
Since the autumn portion of fertilizers for fruit trees is applied after harvesting, you can make your gardening work easier by feeding cherries and apricots in the summer. These types of garden crops will require watering several times before the dormant period, so it is convenient to dilute the drug in one of the waterings and give the plant a nutrient solution.
Young seedlings planted in the spring have not had time to develop a root system, and it will be difficult for them to “pull” nutrients from the gradually dissolving fertilizers. It is also convenient for them to give out “feed” by watering.
Foliar top dressing of fruit trees
Apply it when the leaves have not yet fallen on the trees. It can be used at any time with a clear deficiency of some element. But here opinions differ. Some believe that nutrients are better absorbed through the leaves than through the roots. Others – that fertilizers are absorbed, but the effect of “ambulance” should not be expected. Only one thing is clear: there will be no harm from this.
Foliar top dressing is a good way to fertilize early fruit trees:
- apricot;
- cherries;
- rannie sorta višen.
For mid- and late-ripening varieties of cherries, fertilizers can be applied in the fall as usual.
Feeding is carried out in the same way as spraying the garden from pests. But not an insecticide is added to the spray gun, but a filtered solution of fertilizers. An important condition: the foliage should still be “working”, and not preparing to die off in the fall.
When to Fertilize Fruit Trees
The timing of top dressing depends on the region and type of plant. According to average statistics, horticultural crops are fed at the end of September or in October. The procedure is carried out in parallel with other garden work.
Table of autumn dressings of fruit trees
If you want to get a good and plentiful harvest, you cannot use averaged tables from reference books. Otherwise, agronomists would have been out of work for a long time. For each locality, a separate table of dressings is calculated, taking into account climatic conditions and soil quality. In the tables, the averages often vary greatly.
An example of the autumn needs of fruit crops per plant.
Another example of the autumn need of fruit crops for manure.
The data in the tables is different. In this case, both tables can be correct, but for different regions and soil compositions.
Monthly feeding of fruit trees
It is better to apply fertilizers for fruit crops in the fall, dividing them by time intervals. Of course, if there is such an opportunity. The first should be a potassium-containing drug. Potassium is a rapidly digestible element, and a tree needs this macronutrient during the ripening period of the crop and immediately after harvest.
With a break of 2 weeks or more, superphosphate is added to the soil. Phosphorus will be absorbed more slowly.
And already, counting on the next spring, nitrogen is the last to be introduced. For nitrogen-containing fertilizer, the most long-playing type is usually chosen – humus.
Fertilizing fruit trees in August
Apples and pears, on which the fruits have not yet ripened, are fed with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers in August. Nitrogen is contraindicated at this time. Phosphorus improves the taste of fruits, and potassium reduces the percentage of carrion. At the same time, plants begin to build up the root system.
Top dressing is added to the soil by a dry method or by diluting mineral preparations in water. The dry preparation is scattered around the perimeter of the root system.
How to feed fruit trees in September
In September, fruit crops are given what they did not have time to give in August. Or there was no opportunity for top dressing. This is the same autumn complex of minerals + nitrogen-containing organic matter. The latter is brought in during the digging of the garden for the winter.
Do I need to feed in October
In October, minerals are added if, for some reason, they have not done this before. Usually this month they already combine top dressing with autumn moisture-charging watering. If the minerals were introduced earlier, only humus is added to the soil in October.
How to feed fruit trees in autumn depending on age
The amount and types of minerals during autumn top dressing vary depending on the age of the plant. Gardeners have their own gradation of horticultural crops by age:
- Seedling. Tree up to 2 years in the first year after planting.
- Teenager. Already established, but not yet producing plant.
- Young tree. Already bearing fruit, but not yet producing at full strength.
- mature plant. Productivity is at its peak and stabilized.
- An aging tree. Productivity drops.
Depending on the stages of development, the amount and types of fertilizers are regulated.
Feeding seedlings after planting
After planting, the seedlings are fed only with water, since all the necessary preparations were added to the pit during planting. In the second year, 6 g of a nitrogen-containing or universal preparation is added.
When buying seedlings in a store, this happens quite often. There you can even buy a seedling already with fruits. Picking flowers and top dressing in the second year with nitrogen fertilizer is necessary for the tree to spend energy and nutrients on the development of the root system.
How to feed young fruit trees in autumn
From the third year of life, during the autumn work, the soil is “refueled” with a complete set of phosphorus and potassium. A small amount of nitrogen is also allowed, but the main amount of the nitrogen-containing preparation is applied in the spring. In the vegetative season, they are additionally fed with a full range of nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. In a lean year, intermediate seasonal top dressing is excluded.
How to fertilize fruit-bearing fruit trees in the fall
It is better to feed adult fruit trees only in the fall, without forcing the spring dressing of the soil. During the growing season, trees are fed once every 1 years.
Old trees with declining productivity are dressed in autumn and spring, as long as it suits the owner. Further, if desired, either cut down or left for beauty.
Garden care after fertilizing
If the garden was fertilized in the summer – at the beginning of autumn, then follow:
- pruning;
- leaf cleaning;
- digging the soil;
- winter watering;
- protection of plants from frost.
If autumn soil filling took place in late autumn along with watering, then it will only be necessary to warm the plants for the winter.
Conclusion
Autumn top dressing of fruit trees is the main procedure aimed at obtaining a rich harvest next spring. This is an operation that the gardener cannot neglect if he wants to get a return on horticultural crops.