Bio-Dynamic Gardening by John Soper Barbara Saunders-Davis

Author:John Soper, Barbara Saunders-Davis [John Soper]
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780285641570
Publisher: Souvenir Press (Perseus)
Published: 2012-04-06T16:00:00+00:00

Treatment of Mature Trees

Once trees in an established sward have come into bearing there is very little to be done in the way of soil treatments. The trunks should be kept clear of vegetation to a radius of 23–30 cm (9–12 in). The sward can be kept close cut with a rotary mower, in which case the cut grass is left where it lies to rot down and provide worm food. If allowed to grow longer it will have to be cut with a scythe and the hay is either used as a mulch or removed for composting with other material for eventual return to the orchard. The mulch may be applied in circles round the trees just below the ends of the outer branches where most of the feeding roots are working. Another method is to rake the grass into straight rows in the root feeding area; the second cut can then be placed in rows at right angles to the first. An occasional dressing of compost to the whole area is beneficial, but do not waste it around the bases of the trunks because the active roots there will mostly have died out. Spring and autumn sprays of 500 to the whole area are advisable. Ideally 501 is sprayed three times—first, when the tree has made its first leaves and flower buds are showing, second, when the fruitlets are the size of hazelnuts, and third, when the fruit is beginning to ripen. This is rather a daunting programme for most gardeners unless the times coincide with spraying other crops. The most important spray is the second, but if August is dull and cold the third becomes almost essential if good quality fruit is to be harvested.

Another job when a tree has set a heavy crop is to thin out the fruitlets when about the size of a walnut, but this does not apply to plums and cherries. It has been shown by experiment that one apple to 20 leaves gives the best results; there is no need to count every leaf on the tree, just do it on one or two branchlets to get the right feeling.

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