Top tips to keep your Fruit Salad Tree in tip top shape each season

February 19, 2025 1 Comment

Here are some tips to help you keep your Fruit Salad Tree at it's best throughout the year.  We all get busy and sometimes the garden jobs get forgotten. We get it!

We've popped these tips and tricks into categories (eg Citrus or Apple or Stonefruit) and then into seasons (eg in autumn remember to do this or keep an eye out for this in summer, etc.) to make things as easy as possible. 

Happy, healthy fruit trees grow more fruit and that will make everyone happy!

Seasonal Care for your Apple trees

• Autumn - Prune any weak or branches that grow across each other. Remove any rootstock that is growing along the trunk or that is springing up from the soil. Clean your garden area and remove dead leaves and twigs from underneath your Fruit Tree canopy.
• Winter - Applying a copper spray will line your newly growing buds with a protective coating and also help keep the nasty coddling moth under control.
• Spring - Applying a spray of Lime Sulphur at by late budswell will help prevent fungal diseases like apple scab. If you want to go even more organic a spray of garlic and seaweed on the apple leaves is a good alternative. NOTE: DO NOT SPRAY ON DELICIOUS VARIETIES)
• Summer - Keep up your balancing every few weeks to help keep the growing energy balanced between all if the varieties - it is especially important during the warmer months of the year.

Seasonal Care for your Citrus trees

• Autumn - Apply a spray of copper to your citrus tree to help control bacterial and fungus diseases like Melanose
• Winter - Now is a good time to clean up any fallen leaves and fruit from the ground and apply fresh mulch (leaving about 2 inches from the truck)
• Spring - Apply another spray of copper to your citrus tree.
• Summer - Keep up your balancing every few weeks to help keep the growing energy balanced between all if the varieties - it is especially important during the warmer months of the year.

Seasonal Care for your Stone fruit trees

• Autumn - Leaf Fall; now is a good time to apply a Lime Sulphur application to your Fruit Salad Tree (always follow the directions on the packet).
  Note: if your leaves have not naturally dropped off your tree you can run your hands along the branch work to remove any loose leaves and then cut the remaining leaves with your secateurs before spraying.
• Winter - At budswell apply a copper spray to your tree, this is an extra spray that will protect your new growth from bacterial or fungus diseases.
• Spring - It is important to keep up soil moisture to your tree during the formation of buds to help maximise success of fruit set. When your fruits are about the size of a pea you will be able to see if your fruits need thinning. Thinning your fruits will produce a better fruit with less bruising and stop your fruit tree from suffering from biennial fruiting and not producing the following year.
  
• Summer - Keep up your balancing every few weeks to help keep the growing energy balanced between all if the varieties - it is especially important during the warmer months of the year.

Throughout the year always make sure you are using clean tools on your trees; dipping your tools with a mixture of Tea tree oil or Eucalyptus oil will stop the spread of bacterial and fungal diseases. Just add 5ml of the oil with a drop of dish washing detergent to a litre of water

*Biennial Fruiting - Meaning: Your tree produces a huge harvest one year and doesn't fruit at all the next.

Here at Fruit Salad Trees, we stock a wide range of fruit trees, which all boast different fruit on the same tree. Each fruit variety retains its own flavour, appearance and ripening time. We graft citrus, stonefruit and multi-apple trees. 

Shop our wide range of trees now and check out our current specials here!

For more information caring for your fruit trees, check out the Department of Primary Industries articles on fruit trees.

1 Response

Tania Hauraki

February 05, 2021

I missed spraying my tree after buds came out

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