Optimal Fertilizing Techniques for Fruit Trees Throughout the Year

Garden maintenance involves soil management, watering, and fertilizing fruit trees. Let's discuss how to best feed trees and shrubs.

Fertilizing with Organic Fertilizers

Organic fertilization involves using chicken manure as a fertilizer, which is accessible for backyard gardening. It should be diluted with water: one bucket of manure to ten buckets of water, ensuring the mixture is thoroughly stirred during watering.

It is preferable to fill barrels with fresh chicken manure and liquid manure during summer, dilute with water and let it ferment before using it as a fertilizer. Before application, adding 50-100g of superphosphate and potash per bucket of solution and mixing well can be beneficial.

While nitrogen in manure promotes strong tree growth, phosphorus and potassium are essential for increased fruiting and better wood maturation. This is especially crucial in foothill and mountain areas.

However, if the orchard is situated on fertile black soil with ample water supply, manure application may not be necessary, and you may only need to supplement with superphosphate and potash.

Proper Fertilization Techniques

To properly apply fertilizer and maximize its benefits to the fruit trees, create 6-10 holes around the tree's drip line, 60-70 cm deep, and fill each with 150-200g of superphosphate. In between these holes, make an equal number of holes for potash, mixing it evenly with the soil.

Such fertilization should begin with fruit-bearing and repeat every 2-3 years. In dry regions, apply more manure, less superphosphate, and even less potash. Opting out of these fertilizers entirely can also be considered.

Younger trees are less responsive to fertilizers, resulting in less growth increment compared to older, fruiting gardens. However, to establish healthy, long-lived trees with well-developed canopies, it's essential to provide optimal growth conditions from planting and throughout their life.

Fertilizer Dosage

Different tree species respond differently to fertilizer types. Apple and pear trees prefer manure, while stone fruits favor mineral fertilizers.

The dosage of applied fertilizers varies by region and even by individual garden based on the soil's existing nutrient reserves.

The Michurin Horticultural Institute provides recommended fertilizer rates for young orchards in the southern fruit zones, as shown in Table No. 1. Manure, phosphorus, and potassium mineral fertilizers, along with one-third of the nitrogen fertilizers, are integrated into the soil. The remaining two-thirds of the nitrogen fertilizers should be applied as a top dressing before hoeing:

• In young orchards, apply early in spring and during vigorous shoot growth.
• In fruit-bearing orchards, apply early in spring or post-flowering, as well as when excess set fruit is falling.

Manure slurry, animal urine, and bird droppings can also be used for tree fertilization.

Precautions in Soil Fertilization

There are certain precautions in soil fertilization. Fertilizers should not be applied haphazardly, as improper application can harm plants. Soil analysis in one garden plot revealed nitrogen levels five times the norm, with phosphorus and potassium three times too high.

Good yields require soil flushing. Creek water analysis, post-garden fertilization in the fall, showed nutrient levels near the norm or even higher in some sections.

Many gardeners aim to apply excessive fertilizers like strong chicken manure without recognizing that plants absorb fertilizers only when dissolved and in low concentrations, not exceeding 1%.

For foliar feeding, via leaf spraying, a solution concentration must not exceed 0.5%, or 50g active ingredient per water bucket. Higher concentrations can burn root hair and stunt growth for at least two weeks.

Use chicken manure appropriately by filling a barrel (one bucket per 100L water), allowing it to ferment, then diluting one liter of the solution in a bucket of water before applying, ensuring you know the specific times and rates for different plants.

Remember: do not apply nitrogen fertilizers, even in solution, after July, as this stimulates growth which might not finish before frosts. However, phosphorus and potassium supplements encourage flower bud formation and wood maturation during this period.

Fertilizing with Complete Fertilizers

Using fertilizers, especially complete fertilizers, such as humus or well-rotted manure, or compost with added minerals, gives excellent results. Apply complete fertilizers before tree planting.

Reapply every 2-3 years, depending on water availability. Compost is made from plant and food waste, heaped and covered with soil to prevent drying. Adding superphosphate to compost is beneficial; use it after complete decomposition.

Notably, iron deficiency causes leaves to pale, signaling chlorosis, while zinc deficiency leads to rosetting with small leaves.

Plants require minimal amounts of boron, copper, manganese, and others, which can be combined with foliar spray solutions.