The Dwarf Fruit Trees Blog

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Spray bottle of compost tea is miracle worker #1 Dwarf Fruit Trees can really respond to treatment with compost tea. (that lovely young tree behind the bottle is an Apricot grown from the pit of an apricot I ate. )

My earlier post by Steve Diver - the recognized world expert - on Compost Tea is here

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A gorgeuos Nashi Pear Tree graces the yard of a property a friend recently purchased.

Truly spectacular. Mega.

Note the tall - no very tall - ladder to give you a sense of scale.

What a meal ticket for your full-time gardener … pruning and harvesting it for you…

…my advice is go lazy, go easy, go dwarfy…

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Out Of The Box Into The Soil

What to do when you get your Dwarf Fruit Trees home or out of the box in which they were shipped to you:

First steps are preparing the container or hole in the ground into which your tree will go.

Dwarf Fruit Trees like a fairly sandy soil that sheds water nicely and doesn’t hold excess water. Standard practice to insure properly draining soil in your containers is to insure the bottom of the container has at least one hole to release water and then line the bottom with a couple inch layer of rocks. any kind of rocks will do - even right out of your garden as you work the soil there. Rocks are not necessary for planting in the ground as your ground is likely self-draining anywhere that is suitable for placing a fruit tree.

Layer in enough of your mix of new soil into the bottom of the hole or container so that when you place the tree into it the base of the tree will be even with the level of the ground or an inch or so from the top of the container as you prefer.

Top soil mixed with a little bit of compost is ideal for this or potting soil- not too much compost directly in the hole as fruit trees like only a moderately fertilized soil. Too much compost or over heavily commercially fertilized soil can “burn” roots. A modest amount of compost mixed thoroughly in a rich garden soil or potting soil will do nicely. If your soil is heavy you may need to mix in some sand or use a potting soil or top soil from the garden supply.

Next we set about getting the roots and tree and soil out of the plastic pot or plastic bag it was shipped in. if wrapped in burlap, it’s OK to go into ground, but be sure to free the bottom root ball a bit so that they have some space to grow down and out from.

Spread your fingers and thumb out around the base of the trunk to hold as much soil in as you can while tipping the tree on it’s side (not necessary to go completely upright as you’ll lose more soil that way). Gently knead the sides of the plastic pot to break the seal of compacted soil against the wall of the pot.

Once the roots and soil pop out of the shipping pot release any of the “root bind”. Root bound plants have roots that grew too much for the small container of soil they were living in up to the time you got them to your home. Gently free the roots by using your fingertips to gently pull the roots off the outer rim of your soil so that they can spread into the wider environs of your new container or the ground.

Place the tree and its soil and freed (but undamaged!) roots into your hole or pot and pour further soil mix to fill up the remaining space gently packing the soil around the roots — you don’t have to go crazy here on packing the soil because we are going to apply a thorough “watering in” drenching to the soil. Over the course of the first day repeatedly apply a good drenching to the soil of your new tree in order for the water to compress the soil around the roots through it’s own action. This puts soil all around the roots rather than too much airspace from our disturbed planting soil which would starve your roots of nutrients.

You can add a little more soil to compensate for settling at the end of the day if necessary. It’s important not to plant your grafted dwarf fruit tree too deeply - don’t bury the root stock base of the tree up to the graft (also called the scion) because the grafted part of the tree (from the full size fruit tree) could put down it’s own roots and the tree will not remain a dwarf.

Keeping Your Fruit Trees Happy

Add a top mulch layer of compost or manure when you plant. Each year in spring, not too late spring, you’ll add more compost or manure or commercial fertilizer to the tree from the base out to the outer spread of the branches if planted in the ground or covering the container.

Dwarf Fruit Trees are particularly attractive to the amateur and professional grower alike because they are easy to prune. Pruning is on a case by case basis as required to prevent overgrowth or maintain health of the tree. Generally you will always want to prune your deciduous trees in the late winter when they are sure to be fully dormant. Evergreens and some very vigorous growers can be shaped in summer to prevent overgrowth or to trim away damaged branches.

If you are using commercial fertilizer you can fertilize most of your trees every couple of months through the growing season. A generous mulch of fully cured organic compost will release nutrients to the tree all year long if you apply it early each spring.

Watering is best done regularly and deeply after the soil has had the chance to dry out somewhat. This duration is based on the temperature, wind, etc that create drying conditions. One of the reasons for letting the soil dry a bit between watering is that this process allows the soil to naturally breathe. Air is driven out when the soil is watered and as it dries air is drawn back down into the soil supplying air to the micro-flora (beneficial bacteria , fungi etc in the soil) and roots.

Talk to your trees! Let them know they appreciated and how well they are doing. The great Luther Burbank and countless other anecdotal commentaries intimate that the best cared for plants are those that are well loved in spirit as well as tended in root and stalk.

Technorati Tags: dwarf fruit trees, planting

Hazelnuts sproued from nuts from a roadside stand here in NZ!

Planted these in potting soil in the fall, forgot about them, and in late winter had these trees! (where I live in NZ has almost 3 full growing seasons)

I killed one of my hazelnuts by idiotically thinking it needed more sun. In less than a week of full dirct sun despite plenty of water it shrivelled to a crisp. The others are doing great in limited direct sun

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This another tree that I will plant in a pot to turn it into a “Dwarf” Blackboy Peach Tree.

This is a volunteer dug up from nearby my neighbors big beautiful Blackboy. It is thriving and is ready to plant in it’s keep me a dwarf container.

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Here is a photo of one of the Loquat Trees I have growing from seed…

..ate the fruit - yummy!- off a neighbors tree. Stuck the pit in a liitle pot…

Overwintered…

and this is the result!

Will translocate it to a permanent container to keep it smaller and turn it into a Dwarf loquat Fruit Tree.

A totally free way to have many Yummy Dwarf Fruit Trees

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Another tree growing from a piece of fruit that I ate an then planted the pit In a pot.

This will go in a larger container soon an become a dwarf fruit tree too by constraint in the pot.

Another Free dwarf fruit tree

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One of the easy things about Dwarf Fruit Trees is they make fantastic Indoor Fruit Trees.  

Whether you live in a warm or a cold climate, the dwarf fruit tree is ideal for bringing greenery, bright colors, gorgeous fragrances, and…. frankly….

companionship…

…indoors and into your daily work-a-day life.  

A fruit tree breathes life into your moods and moments.  

Flowering plants merely bloom, but Indoor Fruit Trees pulsate color into the room.  Going back to the very Garden of Eden itself, our minds are deeply connected to respond to fruit “ripening on the vine”.  

A fruit tree in your indoor space paints an interior design with the energy of tasty abundance. An impact eclipsing mere greenery alone. 

There are many wonderful considerations for your tree indoors: 

A sunny spot - what a bonus that your tree draws you to the sunshine.

An adequate container - in size not style…unlike most green plants that require a beautiful container too, the Indoor Fruit Tree itself blows away the pot’s importance to the eye. Even a big container can be as plain or as decorative as you like. 

Regular water and nutrition - a good well-drained potting mix, with some acidity for the citrus (adding coconut peat or other peat does the trick), and some compost tea, bokashi, or a commercial fruit tree fertilizer regularly throughout the growing season. 

A bit of spray - again bokashi or compost tea are good here, commercial sprays can also work. To help keep any unbalances of disease or pests from dominating your tree.  

Lots of Love, Talking, and Attention - no kidding.  Trees like great music too - particularly Mozart.

Feng Shui - Lime trees and Lemon Trees at the entrances to a home rock the Feng Shui and absorb bad luck - so say Lillian Too author of 10 million copies sold on the art of placement of things to balance energy. See Dwarf Fruit Trees Absorb and Kill Bad Luck and Evil Influence.  (Now we are talking!)

Please post your comments on favorite Indoor Fruit Trees you have growing in your home, office, studio, or other indoor space.

Technorati Tags: Container Fruit Trees, dwarf fruit trees, Indoor Fruit Trees

Steve Diver of NCAT gets my vote… he gives me hope…may he lead us into a new era…

What is Compost Tea?

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As the name implies, compost tea is made by steeping compost in water. It’s used as either a foliar spray or a soil drench, depending on where your plant has problems. 

Bucket-Fermentation Method
“Passive” compost tea is prepared by immersing a burlap sack filled with compost into a bucket or tank, stirring occassionally. Usually the brew time is longer, from 7 to 10 days. This is the method that dates back hundreds of years in Europe, and is more akin to a compost watery extract than a “brewed” and aerated compost tea. 

Bucket-Bubbler Method
The equipment setup and scale of production are similar to the bucket method, except that an aquarium-size pump and air bubbler are used in association with microbial food and catalyst sources added to the solution as an amendment. Since aeration is critical, as many as three sump pumps may be used in a bucket simultaneously. 
With homemade compost tea brewing, a compost “sock” is commonly used as a filter-strainer. Ideally, the mesh size will strain compost particulate matter but still allow beneficial microbes—including fungal hyphae and nematodes—to migrate into solution. Single-strand mesh materials such as nylon stockings, laundry bags, and paint bags are some of the materials being used; fungal hyphae tend to get caught in polywoven fabrics. If burlap is used, it should be “aged” burlap.

Trough Method
Large-scale production of compost teas employs homemade tanks and pumps. An 8- or 12-inch-diameter PVC pipe is cut in half, drilled full of holes, and lined with burlap. Compost is placed in this makeshift trough. The PVC trough is supported above the tank, several feet in the air. The tank is filled with water, and microbial food sources are added as an amendment. A sump pump sucks the solution from the bottom of the tank and distributes the solution to a trickle line running horizontally along the top of the PVC trough filled with compost. As the solution runs through the burlap bags containing the compost, a leachate is created which then drops several feet through the air back into the open tank below. A sump pump in the bottom of the tank collects this “tea” and distributes it back through the water line at the top of the trough, and so on. Through this process, which lasts about seven days, the compost tea is recirculated, bubbled, and aerated. The purpose of the microbial food source is to grow a large population of beneficial microorganisms.

Commercial Tea Brewers
Commercial equipment is available for the production of brewed compost teas (see a list of suppliers below). Usually there is a compost sack or a compost leachate basket with drainage holes, either of which are used to hold a certain volume of compost. The compost-filled container is placed in a specially designed tank filled with chlorine-free water. Microbial food sources are added to the solution. A pump supplies oxygen to a specially-designed aeration device which bubbles and aerates the compost tea brewing in the tank.

Summary
Depending on your scale of production and the level of financial resources available to purchase commercial brewing equipment vs. making some kind of homemade brewer, there are several methods to choose from. Research at Soil Foodweb, Inc. in Corvallis, Oregon has shown that differences exist in the beneficial attributes of compost teas, with commercial tea brewers producing the greatest numbers and diversity of beneficial microorganisms.

By Steve Diver
NCAT Agriculture Specialist
February 2002

 

Technorati Tags: Compost, compost tea spray, Composting, dwarf fruit trees