fruits

9 Sweet and Flavorful Melon Varieties to Grow in the Home Garden

With spring’s warming temperatures comes the melon-growing season and the sweet aroma and flavor unmatched in homegrown varieties. Sowing seeds now, we can enjoy them after a long growing season at peak ripeness—sugary, juicy, and refreshing. Join gardening expert Katherine Rowe in growing the sweetest, most flavorful melon varieties this season. Spring’s warming soils mean it’s time to plant a variety of heat-loving crops, including many types of melons, from watermelons to cantaloupes to honeydews. Homegrown melons harvested at peak ripeness are so much more flavorful than those that travel to the grocery store. Some are delicacies with tender skins or flesh that are not well-suited to commercial shipping, but in our own gardens, we enjoy them fresh off the vine. Melons take a relatively long time to develop, soaking up the long, sunny summer days and seasonal moisture. Seeds do best with direct sowing as soon as the soil is warm enough (60°F/16°C or warmer). In cool climates with short growing seasons, start melons indoors two to four weeks before you plan to transplant. To get the best return on our garden investment and wait time, choosing melon varieties with the best flavor is a priority. Quality flavor often overlaps with disease resistance and ease of growth. Enjoy tasty, sweet, and juicy melons right off the stem this summer and fall by sowing seeds this spring. Melons are in the cucurbit family (Cucurbitaceae) with other favorite crops like cucumbers and squash. The melon group includes watermelons, muskmelons, cantaloupes, and winter melons like honeydew. They mature in about 80 to 100 days, and dwarf varieties sometimes mature earlier. Melons are frost-sensitive annual crops with optimal growing temperatures between 70-85°F (21-29°C). Direct sow seeds after the final frost and when soil and air temperatures warm to the sixties (around 16°C). Direct sowing is an advantage as it reduces transplant disturbance to sensitive roots. But, to get a jumpstart on the lengthy growing season, start seeds indoors in biodegradable pots or soil blocks.

How to Plant, Grow, and Care for Tayberries

Are you looking for seriously delicious berries to grow this year? If so, try planting tayberries for their bountiful harvests and easy-to-maintain nature. In this article, plant expert Matt Dursum covers how to plant, grow, and care for tayberries. Tayberries are delicious, sweet, and juicy, with refreshing tartness and great texture. They’re even sweeter than loganberries and have a very berry-like flavor that almost resembles a dark blackberry wine. Like blackberries and raspberries, they’re incredibly easy to grow in many climates throughout the US. They produce a massive harvest in mid-summer. Enjoy them raw right off the vine or use them in jams, sauces, or fruit wines. Grow these beautiful berries wherever you grow blackberries and raspberries. They’ll thrive with very little maintenance and provide tons of fresh fruit for very little effort. Let’s dive into more about these wonderful plants and their mouth-watering fruit. What Is It? Tayberries are a cross between blackberries and red raspberries. They share many characteristics with the two plant species. They have a sweet and tart flavor that’s hard not to adore, especially on a warm summer day. These berries grow on long canes, which are covered in sharp thorns, similar to many varieties of blackberries. The canes radiate from the central plant and are easy to control. Tayberries produce larger fruits than blackberries or raspberries, which can get to over an inch long. Because they’re more delicate than their parent species, they have almost no commercial value other than novelty jams and wines. Characteristics Tayberries range from red to dark purple, with darker ones tasting sweeter and red ones tangier. Tayberry plants produce fruit on 2-year-old canes. After producing fruit, these canes will naturally die back. New canes will grow from the central plant and be ready for fruiting the following year. Unlike some species of blackberries, tayberries are easy to control. They work great as natural hedges or edible border crops. Their canes will grow up to 6 feet in length, with some individuals growing larger in the right conditions. The fruits appear red to dark purple. The darker berries tend to have the most sweetness, while the red berries have higher acidity. The fruits are actually aggregate fruits, meaning they’re made up of tiny druplets, each with a seed inside. Besides their delicious fruit, these berries attract beneficial pollinators to your garden. They’re also one of the prized species on the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit list. Native Area Tayberries were first introduced to the world in Scotland at the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute. In 1980, horticulturist Derek Jennings crossed a European raspberry with an Aurora blackberry plant. After creating the new hybrid, he named it after the River Tay in Scotland. The plant quickly gained popularity throughout the UK. Soon, growers brought tayberries to the US, where they took off in the Pacific Northwest. Their parents originated in Europe. Other species of brambles are native throughout the world. They grow in cooler regions with heavy moisture and temperate climates. People have been eating and cultivating brambles for thousands of years as food and medicine. Planting Plant tayberries in organic, well-drained soil along borders or beds with other sun-loving brambles. Planting tayberries is incredibly easy and similar to raspberries and blackberries. They’re less likely to grow uncontrollably than many popular blackberry varieties. Tayberries are trailing types of brambles that grow best on trellises. Plant them with plenty of space from other individuals to avoid overcrowding. Grow them in garden beds or around your garden borders. They’ll flourish as long as the soil is well-drained and full of organic material. Plant them with other sun-loving berries or brambles for a productive edible garden. Transplanting Transplant starters in early spring to give roots time to settle before harvesting the next year. Transplant a healthy tayberry starter by digging a deep and wide hole in your garden bed or yard. Amend the soil underneath with organic compost. Make sure the soil is well-drained and not at the bottom of a hill where moisture can build up. Gently lift your starter from its container and place it in the hole. Be careful not to damage its root system. Make sure the crown is level with the soil top. Carefully fill the spaces with soil and cover your plant with mulch. After transplanting, water your transplant thoroughly. Keep the surrounding soil moist as they take root in their new home. After a few weeks, you should start to see new growth coming from your tayberry plants. The best time to transplant starters is in early spring when the plants are dormant. This gives them enough time to establish their root system in the new soil. Be prepared to wait a year until you can enjoy your first harvest. How to Grow Tayberries are easy to grow; they only need sun, space, and moisture for the best results. Growing tayberries is incredibly easy, just like blackberries and raspberries. After their first year in your garden, they’ll be easy to maintain and give you very few problems. The main trick is giving them plenty of space, light, and moisture throughout their growing season. Light Give tayberries space and sunlight for their thorny canes to grow, though partial shade works too. Like other brambles, tayberries thrive when they’re growing under full sun. Space them far apart from other plants, so they have enough room to grow their canes. Although they prefer full sun, they will grow fine in areas with partial shade. Water An overhead stream of water irrigating young plants in dappled sunlight Water tayberries weekly during growth, but avoid soggy soil to prevent root damage. Give your tayberries plenty of water throughout their growing season. Aim for a few inches of water every week, but don’t let the soil become soggy. Once you notice the fruit developing, increase the amount of water to 4 inches per week. These plants produce a lot of fruit during midsummer and appreciate the extra moisture. Although these plants love a good shower, they will succumb to root rot if they’re oversaturated. If you notice the soil becoming soggy, refrain from adding more water until it drains. Soil Mulch around crowns after planting to keep moisture in and block weeds from taking over.Plant these brambles in well-drained soil amended with plenty of organic matter. They prefer a soil pH that’s slightly acidic, between a pH of 5.5 to 6.5. Before planting, add plenty of organic compost to the soil mix. You can also add cow manure to the mixture to boost the nutrient content. After planting, add a thick layer of mulch to your soil around the crowns. Mulching will help lock in moisture in the soil and help keep your plants hydrated. It will also block out weeds from taking over and competing for nutrients and water. Temperature and Humidity Tayberries tolerate humidity well, but dry climates may need extra watering to keep them hydrated. Tayberries thrive in zones 4 through 8. They prefer areas with mild summers without extreme temperatures. They don’t mind growing in humid environments. If you live in drier regions such as Southern California, you may have to increase the amount of water you give them. These brambles produce their harvests in mid-summer, usually around July. Because of this, you won’t have to worry about late-season frosts killing your crops. Fertilizing Close-up of a gardener's hand in a dark blue glove holding a handful of bright blue granular fertilizers over a black bucket full of fertilizers. Start with organic-rich soil, so you rarely need fertilizer unless growth or nutrients appear to be lacking. If you give your plants plenty of organic material at the start of planting, they will rarely need extra fertilizer. However, if you’re concerned about the performance and nutrient content of your soil, you can amend it with an organic fertilizer high in phosphorus like this one. Add the plant food at the beginning of spring when your plants are dormant. You can also give your plants a light feeding a few weeks to a month before harvest. This is usually in June. Maintenance Train tayberries on trellises like other brambles; arbors and large supports work especially well. Tayberries are incredibly easy to maintain once you get them in the ground. Because of their growing habit, they respond well to growing on trellises. Large structures such as the Gracie Modern Arbor work great with these plants. Like many other species of brambles, you can remove old canes after they bear fruit. These canes will naturally die back. Use disinfected pruners or shears and cut the canes at their base. This will encourage new canes to form at the base of the plant. Propagation A gardener uses a pair of pruners to snip new green growth of a bramble vine. Propagate tayberries easily by suckers, tip layering, or root cuttings to grow more plants. Tayberries are easy to propagate by planting their suckers, taking root cuttings, or tip layering. Each method will yield new and productive plants. Tip Layering Roots growing from stems of Rubus shoot as a result of layering. Tip layering works best when bending long canes into the soil and covering them for rooting. Tip layering is my favorite way to propagate tayberries. Simply wait until you have healthy young canes growing more than a few feet long. Carefully bend the tips of the canes to the soil and pile the soil on top of them. Wait a couple of weeks until the tips develop roots in their new location. Once the roots grow, carefully cut the tips from their parent plant. Give the new plants plenty of water to encourage new growth. You can also let your plants propagate by tip layering naturally. Simply avoid trellising the entire plant or a few sections of canes. Gravity will do its magic and bend the canes to the ground naturally. Root Cuttings Plant root cuttings in the spring using well-drained soil and move them later after they have established roots.Take root cuttings in the fall from healthy plants. Carefully dig around the root system and remove a healthy root that’s about the thickness of a pencil. Slice them into 6-inch lengths and store them away in coconut coir or peat moss. Keep the storage temperature at around 32°F (0°C) and keep the medium moist. In the early spring, plant the root cuttings in well-drained soil. You can start them in containers and transplant them later in the season. Suckers A gardener trimming a sucker to transplant into containers and propagate more tayberries.Dig and transplant suckers with water to help them quickly root in their new spot.Suckers are sections of new growth that appear at the base of the plant. They resemble tiny bramble plants that pop up sporadically in the spring. Propagate suckers by digging them up from the soil and transplanting them. Give them plenty of water and they’ll take root in their new location. Harvesting and Storage Tayberries fruit heavily mid-summer; harvest gently because ripe berries bruise or break easily when picked.Tayberries produce one large harvest in mid-summer, typically around July. They are very brittle, so use caution when picking them. If they’re not sliding off their stems effortlessly, they’re probably not ripe enough. After harvesting, carefully lay them on a pan or paper towel in the fridge. Enjoy them fresh or use them in jams, preserves, sauces, and pies, or even use them to make wine. Replace other brambles with your tayberries for recipes such as pies or crumbles. They make wonderful fruit marinades or ingredients in homemade ice cream. Common Problems Watch for pest and disease issues in poor conditions. Although these bramble hybrids are easy to maintain, you’ll want to watch for common problems such as pests and diseases. Below are a few common pests and diseases that can attack your plants if their growing conditions are less than ideal.

Which Berries Can I Grow in the Pacific Northwest?

We are fortunate that so many small fruits and berries thrive in the Pacific Northwest. Here are some of the many that do well in our climate. Blueberries Lingonberries Cranberries Strawberries Raspberries Blackberries Boysenberries Loganberries Tayberries Marionberries Grapes Currants Gooseberries Sea Berries Goji Berries Things to Think About Before Planting Berries Soil Think about what kind of soil you have. Does it hold moisture? Does it drain well? What is the pH? Knowing these details can help you know how to amend your soil to best suit the plants you choose to grow. For example, did you know blueberries prefer acidic soil? If your pH tends toward alkaline and you would like to grow blueberries, you can add elemental sulfur or acidifying fertilizer to help acidify the soil. If your soil has a lot of clay or is very compacted, add a high-quality compost like G&B Organics Soil Building Conditioner, which helps aerate the soil and helps it retain moisture. Light How much light does the area you want to plant in receive? Most fruits and berries need at least 6-8 hours of direct sun daily - what we call a full sun situation - to thrive and produce harvests. Available Space Think about how much space you have. This will help you decide if you have room for multiple grapevines or if a compact, container-friendly blueberry variety would better suit the space you have available. Fruit Purpose Knowing why you’re growing small fruits and berries can help you choose the best varieties. Do you want to eat the berries fresh, have them for pies, or for canning? For example, If you will be freezing or canning in large batches, choose varieties that ripen all at once rather than little by little over a long period. Personal Time & Energy Planting and maintaining a fruit garden requires some personal time and energy. Consider how much time you can devote to your garden on a regular basis. If you can give a few plants an hour every week, that’s probably sufficient. If you can devote 4-6 hours a week to your entire garden, that’s pretty great!

Blueberries

There are many excellent blueberry varieties the PNW. Blueberries will provide more than delicious fruit; they offer outstanding ornamental value as well. In fall and winter, the leaves and the bark of young branches turn glowing shades of yellows and reds. All blueberries will bloom at approximately the same time but the fruit will ripen at different times from July through October depending on the variety. Think about whether you want blueberries that ripen all at once for freezing or canning, or if you prefer a longer harvest for fresh eating throughout the season. Typically, you’ll have the best fruit production with two blueberry plants. If you only have room for one, choose a self-fertile variety. However, we still recommend two plants if you have space because even the self-fertile can produce better yields with two plants. Growing Tips Choose a location that receives full sun and has well-drained, acidic soil high in organic matter (such as compost). Although blueberries like moisture, they don’t like to be sitting in soggy soil! Generally speaking, anticipate that you’ll likely need to water deeply 1-2 times per week. With any fruiting plant, avoid overhead watering and sprinkler systems; a drip or soaker hose is an excellent watering method. In the first year, pick off all the flowers so that the plant can focus its energy on developing a strong root system. This is hard to do but you’ll be rewarded with better crops in later years! In containers, try smaller, dwarf varieties that stall small and compact but still bear lots of fruit.

Strawberries

Strawberries are a fantastic crop for garden beds and containers. When choosing a type, consider how much room you have for your plants to spread and also if you would like them to ripen all at once or throughout a long season. Strawberries are self-fertile so only one variety is necessary. There are three classes of strawberries: June-Bearing (also called summerbearing) strawberries produce one large crop in June and have many vigorous runners. Ever-Bearing strawberries produce a smaller crop in June, then fruit again in late summer to frost. Day-Neutral strawberries fruit continuously throughout summer and fall and have very few runners. Growing Tips Choose a sunny site. Six hours of sun is a minimum and ten+ hours is best. Strawberries prefer moist, well-drained soil. Avoid overhead watering to help reduce fungal diseases. Harvest by cutting the stem rather than pulling the strawberries. Fertilize lightly in the spring and again after harvest for summer-bearing varieties. See more details on how to grow strawberries and how to build a Wooden strawberry planter.

Raspberries

When you choose your raspberry plants from our Nursery, don't be surprised to see plants that look too small to bear a bountiful harvest. Take our word that with the right environment and care, you'll have plenty of sweet treats. There are two types of raspberries to consider: everbearing will usually give you a crop mid-summer and in early fall, while summer-bearing varieties will give you one big harvest in late summer. Planting Raspberries Choose a location that receives full sun to part-sun and has well-draining soil. Consider your space and plant supports before putting your cane fruit in the ground. Raspberries benefit from having a support system. The traditional method of trellising cane fruit (raspberries, blackberries, etc.) is to create two rows of posts and tying up wires, although stakes and twine also work. Raspberries also have roots that travel and will sprout new canes. Be mindful of where you're planting; it's a great idea to give them their very own garden bed. If you can provide a raised bed, that's all the better. Raspberry Care Raspberry plants have relatively shallow root systems, so keeping a weed-free bed will minimize root competition. A layer of compost mulch helps a lot. As previously mentioned, suckers grow from travelling root systems. Keep an eye on canes that will pop up around your garden and prune them out if they're in inappropriate areas. As with most fruiting plants, take care not to allow your plants to dry out during the summer, especially as they're bearing fruit. For more information about growing and pruning, see our caning berries care sheet.

Grapes

Grapes are another fruit that we're fortunate to be able to grow well in the PNW. There are two types of grapes to consider: wine grapes and table grapes. Table grapes often produce better than wine grapes, so unless you're making wine, we recommend selecting a table grape variety. Planting Grapes Choose a location that has a lot of sun, heat, with lean, well-draining soil. Grapes can thrive in rocky soil and they don't need a lot of love and attention to produce well. Grapes love warmth; top dressing with gravel or planting next to an area with reflective sun are great ways to hold heat in. Grapes are self-fertile, and so you don't need more than one plant. One plant needs a lot of room to spread. If you'd like to have multiple grape plants, we recommend putting them at least 8 feet away from each other and training them in opposite directions on a trellis.

Using Netting For Better Fruit Harvests

Fruit tree netting is something I had never used or considered using until this year. I had experimented with nylon apple maggot barriers before with moderate success, but their application is quite laborious and time-intensive. Now that I have tried tree netting I will never go back. The process of netting a tree can seem intimidating at first, but with proper planning and the right supplies, it is an excellent way of protecting fruit from pests such as apple maggots and coddling moths, as well as those pesky crows and squirrels. Measuring and Preparation The first step is to make sure that you will have enough netting for the tree (or part of the tree) that you want to cover. The netting available at Swansons is 17.5 feet wide and is sold by the foot. I started with an 18-foot length, giving me a roughly square piece of netting. However, by the time my apple tree was covered, I wished I had given myself a little more to work with. To determine the amount of netting to cover your tree, measure the height of the tree starting at the lowest branch and its width at the widest part. Then, add the length and height together and multiply by 2. This will equal the minimum length you need for a square piece of netting. It’s important to wait until your fruit tree has finished blooming and the petals have fallen before netting your tree. You want the bees to be able to pollinate so you get lots of fruit! Before wrapping your tree it is also a good idea to finish up any last-minute work on the tree, such as pruning and fruit thinning if you wish to do so. I cut off all but one apple per cluster on my tree because I want fewer, larger apples.

Mulberry Success

When we first moved into our place about ten years ago, I knew I wanted to grow fruit trees. Our block is not ideally situated for this, in all honesty. It slopes awkwardly, and the front yard is North facing. The soil was very poor limestone. It was planted with eucalypts and palms, with weed matting throughout. The backyard was closely planted with huge conifers and agaves. We paid an arborist to remove the trees and my husband tackled the agaves, and with a blank slate, we planned the garden. Our goal was to have a mix of productive and sensory plants, with the intention to always have something edible to pick from the garden at any time, whether it be herbs, fruits or veggies. A decade later, we have a large herb, sensory, and veggie garden on rich soil, and about twenty different fruiting trees. In the front garden, this includes a black mulberry tree, which was planted nine years ago. I love mulberries, but you can’t buy them in the shops. I have fond memories of visiting my friend’s house in the Summer, climbing her huge mulberry tree and sitting up there and searching around, finding the little black jewels. I still like ferreting around the tree, searching around jewel-like fruits to find the black, ripe berries. They look like they belong in a fairy story. Mulberries are not a commercially viable crop. Picking them takes ages, as the berries ripen at different times. You have to walk slowly around the tree to find the couple of berries per branch ready to pick. They don’t transport well, and the shelf life is not long. So if you want mulberries, you have to grow them. And they are an acquired taste. Not really sweet like commercial berries, mulberries are tart-sweet with an underlying metallic taste that some people do not enjoy. However, they are hard won. I was not expecting to have much of a crop for the first couple of years, but in the past few years we have waited expectantly for fruit that never came. We have had a couple of dry, tasteless berries each season, then the birds have carried off the rest. Last season, I was despondent, then threatening. I told my husband, “That bloody tree has one more season to produce some fruit, or it’s gone!” Then I thought, as with many garden-related issues, maybe the problem isn’t the tree – maybe it’s the gardener. It didn’t fill me with joy to admit it, believe me. I don’t want to accept that perhaps I had been neglecting the tree. After all, the apricot tree gave us a bumper crop last year. So did the lime tree. Clearly, I could get a tree to produce fruit. But just as different kids need different parenting techniques, so might different fruit trees. So, I read up on mulberry trees. Any info I could find on mulberries, I consumed. Of course, there were differing opinions. Some said prune. Some said don’t prune. But almost all the experts agreed mulberries needed two things in abundance. Water and fertiliser. Not so revolutionary after all. Turns out, I had been underwatering and under-feeding the poor tree. I upped the water, which makes a lot of sense on our north-facing hillside (deep water, once a week), and increased the nutrition. From early Spring, I fed the tree with a couple of handfuls of organic fruit tree fertiliser every month around the base of the tree, watered in well.

Pear Trees

The round, gritty “sand pears” (derived from Asian pears) are among the easiest fruit bearing trees to grow. You can sometimes see old sand pear trees still gamely producing pears in southern homesteads long after the house itself has crumbled. The pears you see in the grocery store are European pears and you can grow them too. Except for their susceptibility to fire blight, which causes stem tips to turn black and die, pears are almost disease-free, and do not need a regular spraying program as do many other fruit trees. Pear trees do not take well to transplanting so choose a long term planting site. The ‘Kieffer’ pear is resistant to fire blight and a good choice everywhere in the continental United States. ‘Kieffer’, like most pear fruit varieties, are self-fertile, but you get better production if you have two cultivars for cross-pollination. The popular ‘Hood’ pear is a good choice for southern orchards. Don’t overlook the new Asian pears. These are hardy in the North, disease-resistant, and generally begin bearing fruit at an early age as a young tree

Apple Trees

Apples are only slightly more difficult to grow than pears. Perfect Plants offers eight different apple tree varieties to choose from. Our favorite varieties include ‘Anna’, ‘Ein Shemer’, and ‘Dorset Golden’ for the South; and ‘Fuji’ and ‘Granny Smith’ for more northern climates. If you are looking for a self fertile apple tree check out the Golden Delicious! Apple trees go through a dormant season so you need to know your local “chill hours” and hardiness zone (they are not the same) and check out the Apple Tree Grow Guide for information on how to grow apple varieties.

Fig Trees

Fig trees may well be the easiest fruit trees of all to grow as they are disease-free, drought tolerant, heat tolerant, fairly cold hardy, early bearing, and self-pollinating. If you are looking for a fast growing fruit tree this is it! We also have semi dwarf fruit tree varieties if you need a small fruit tree to grow in small space that will still produce full size fruit. They are perfect as potted plants! Some fig trees will stay compact at 5-15 feet tall as mature trees. A self-pollinating fruit tree variety means it does not need a second tree to cross pollinate and have trees produce fruit. The ‘Brown Turkey’ Fig tree is one of our favorites. It grows fast, gets large, is highly productive, and it is more cold weather hardy (to USDA zone 7) than most other fig varieties. If you live further Up North, the ‘Chicago Hardy’ fig is your best choice; it will survive in zone 5!

Peach Trees

Peach trees are a great choice for slightly advanced beginner gardeners. They can thrive in USDA grow zones 5-9, making them suitable for a wide range of climates. Peach trees are adaptable, forgiving of different soil conditions, and relatively low maintenance. They require full sun but can tolerate partial shade. Regular watering and proper pruning are important, but both can be easily learned. Peach trees offer a rewarding experience with beautiful blossoms in spring and a bountiful harvest of juicy peaches in the summer. Their manageable size makes them easier to maintain and harvest compared to larger fruit trees. Overall, peach trees are a beginner-friendly option for those looking to add a fruitful addition to their backyard garden.Some examples of fruit trees that are friendly for relative beginners are the White Lady Peach, Reliance Peach, and Contender Peach. These varieties are self-pollinating, meaning they do not require another tree for fruit production, although some varieties may benefit from a companion tree for increased fruit yield. Nevertheless, all three types are capable of producing fruit on their own.

Could grasshoppers be eating your fruit?

Have you ever spotted this type of damage on your fruit? Wondered whether it could be caused by grasshoppers? It’s more likely that you’ve never really thought of this particular insect as a fruit-eating pest. After all, they’re better known for eating grass, leaves, and stems. We’re here to tell you that this damage is typical of grasshoppers, or it might even be caused by locusts.Identifying grasshopper damage on fruit First up, when should you be looking for potential grasshopper damage on your fruit? This differs in different climates. Seasonal conditions can also have a dramatic difference on if (or when) they show up. Grasshoppers can become quite a problem from about mid-summer onwards. If you’re on the lookout you’ll probably notice when they show up in your garden. That’s the time to start checking your fruit for potential damage. Grasshopper damage to fruit trees Grasshoppers can damage fruit, but that’s not the only damage to watch for. If they turn up in large enough numbers, they can also devastate whole trees. Here’s a little plum tree in our orchard that was badly attacked. The photo on the left-hand side showed how sad and bedraggled the tree looked after the attack when it was almost leafless. The photo on the right shows the same little plum tree the following spring, covered in healthy leaves and fruit. Since then, it’s continued to grow and become very productive. As bad as it looks, a tree can survive this sort of damage as long as it happens later in the growing season. That’s because the tree has already done most of its growth for the year. Once your fruit trees stop growing for the season, they can survive more easily without any leaf cover. However, severe damage can kill really young trees. Damage early in the season can also be a death knell if the trees are completely stripped of their leaves. Can you prevent grasshopper damage to fruit trees? One way to combat them seems to be to keep the grass cut (or eaten down by animals) under the trees. This removes some of the habitat and protection from predators that they rely on. But honestly? It can have limited success. Two methods of preventing grasshopper damage The first (and probably best) method is to use some animal friends to do what they do best. Chickens and other poultry just LOVE to eat grasshoppers. But there are a couple of keys to making this technique work. You need to have enough birds to cope with the scale of the problem. There are only so many grasshoppers a chicken can eat, so don’t have unrealistic ideas of how well, or how quickly, they’ll solve your grasshopper problem; If chickens are allowed to free-range over a wide area, the grasshoppers may not come to their attention. Try to confine the chickens around the affected fruit trees for a brief time; Consider limiting access to their other food while they’re on grasshopper duty. Obviously, this needs to be short-term and well-managed. Don’t run the risk of starving your chickens! (Find some simple guidelines about what to feed your chickens here). But they’re more likely to be keenly hunting if their bellies aren’t already full when they start their shift. Done properly, poultry can help to clear up a grasshopper problem very quickly. This is a great example of the many fabulous ways that animals can be key partners in your garden. And the last grasshopper control method… The last method is netting. Regular bird netting won’t work, because the holes are generally too big. It was mandated in Victoria in late 2021 that all fruit tree netting must have holes smaller than 5mm in diameter. This will probably be small enough to exclude most grasshoppers. Fruit fly netting has smaller holes again. If you’re netting your trees against fruit fly, chances are you’ll never be bothered by grasshoppers eating your fruit, or your fruit trees.

How to remove fruit tree suckers…the right way

Removing fruit tree suckers is an important part of pruning your fruit trees. They’re sometimes called watershoots, but in fact, watershoots are something entirely different. Pruning is one of the 5 key fruit tree jobs. Whether you’re pruning in summer or winter (or any other time for that matter), removing suckers is an important part of the job. What’s a sucker? Good question! Suckers are shoots growing from below the graft union on your tree. Sometimes they’re growing directly from the roots and coming up through the soil near the trunk of the tree. Most fruit trees have been grafted. This means that shoots from below the graft union are growing from the rootstock, rather than from the variety. Watershoots are something different. Just like suckers they are strong, vertical shoots, but watershoots grow from above the graft and need dealing with differently. Why should you always remove fruit tree suckers? There are three very good reasons why you should always remove these shoots from your fruit trees. It’s often better to illustrate these things rather than talk about them. Suckers are pretty common, so we have lots of photos from our orchards to demonstrate what we’re talking about! Can suckers get as big as the tree? This is a little plum tree with two suckers coming up from the roots. Notice how they’re pretty much the same diameter as the original tree? In just one year, both suckers have grown taller than the tree. Just imagine, for a minute, what this scenario would look like in another year or two if the suckers were left intact. Within a very short space of time, the original grafted tree would become increasingly difficult to distinguish. In fact, the suckers would likely out-compete the original tree, increasing its chances of dying. If you have a multi-trunked fruit tree in your garden, this is one of the common explanations for how it got there.

How to avoid depressing mistakes with your fruit trees

As experienced fruit growers, we know all too well the importance of planning when it comes to avoiding depressing mistakes with your fruit trees. But even the most experienced growers can make mistakes, and we’ve made plenty! We’ve learned much of what we know the hard way. It’s equipped us very well to help home fruit growers (like you) avoid the same depressing mistakes. There’s no point everyone going through the same pain, so we’re very happy to share our mistakes here on the blog. It might help you skate through the rookie stage as painlessly as possible. Some of the worst mistakes we’ve made along the way happened before we had a robust picking calendar. Making the mistake of letting fruit fall to the ground One early occasion was particularly memorable. It was a beautiful summer day near the start of the picking season. We’d been busy with the cherry harvest, and were excited for the apricots to get started. We had a great crop that year, after a disastrous season the year before. One of the first apricots to ripen in our orchard is the delicious Poppicot variety. To be fair, we’d checked a couple of trees at the top of the row, and decided that they were at least a week from being ripe. What we didn’t do was walk to the bottom of the row to check the fruit there. If we had, we would have noticed a few ripe fruit already lying on the ground. A week later we went to pick, and our hearts sank as we saw a sea of ripe fruit lying on the ground, wasted and ruined. A fruit tree plan—what’s that? We realized that we had made two rookie mistakes. The first was that we didn’t have a Fruit Tree Action Plan or an accurate picking diary to remind us of when it was time to harvest. And the second was that we didn’t realise the impact that microclimate can have on fruit ripening (that is, trees can ripen unevenly, even when they are close together). Bottom line? Our lack of planning led to the waste of all the hard work, pruning, thinning, watering, and feeding that we’d done up to that point! Lesson learned: write an Action Plan including a picking calendar, folks! It’s an easy way to make sure you don’t miss out on the fruits of your labour. Learning the hard way why netting your fruit trees is always worth it When we first moved home to the orchard and started growing fruit, we didn’t have any nets at all to protect the fruit trees. We regularly lost fruit to birds and dreamed of being able to protect our precious crops. Then we got a great deal on a job lot of ex-winery netting. We snapped it up and imagined that our bird woes were over. Ah, such innocent, naive thoughts. The thing about bird netting is that it works really well – as long as you put it on early enough! (You also need to regularly care for your nets.)