March and April Fruit Tree Todo List

Orchard Todo List: March and April. Each of these below will be talked about more in depth in the coming weeks.

Irrigate deeply every 7 days if you have mulched your fruit trees

Thin fruit when fruit reaches thumbnail size: peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples, pears, Asian pears, plums and plum relatives. Needing no thinning are figs, pomegranates, persimmons all nut trees. Class coming!

Begin spraying nectarine fruit with spinosad immediately AFTER flowers drop for control of Western flower thrips (ugly and sappy nectarines)

Thrips damage to nectarine fruit.

Foliar iron fertilizers can be applied (sprays) if you missed your soil application of iron. This may take multiple applications while the temperatures are cool.

This is a good time to put in limb spreaders on apples, pears and Asian pears to 45 degree angle. The branches will bend easily now on limbs one or two years old.

Limb spreaders are placed into trees to force limbs into a 45 degree angle from horizontal. Pears and plums are notorious for having growth that is very upright. To be productive this growth should be pushed to about 45 degrees.

Ground squirrels become active in late March and early April. Bait traps with no poison. Switch to poison bait when squirrels are eating the bait.

Look for tomato hornworms to be active in April. They attack grapes as well as tomatoes. Make sure you have Bt or Spinosad on hand.

Grape fleabeetles may appear in mid-April and eat holes in the leaves of grape leaves. Do not panic. They do little damage.

Set pheremone traps. One and set more when you see the first flight.

Watch for early damage to peaches and nectarine new shoots (flagging) by peach twig borer. Treat with Bt or spinosad.

Weed control is very important right now since they are harboring insects like aphids, thrips, and others. A hoe and walk the old and newer orchard areas will be a big help.