Grow your very own fruit of the month club

ALBANY — When people ask if I grew up on a farm, I would tell them not really. My dad worked on a dairy farm back in the ’60s and ’70s, and we lived on a dirt road in rural Orangeburg, so we just had a few animals and grew vegetables. None of that was a source of income for us.

I remember getting pigs from my grandfather, having a black angus bull that we made chase us at feeding time, chickens, and of course, big fields of vegetables. Somehow, I forget to mention all the fruit trees on the land where I practiced making not-so-straight rows with my grandfather’s tractor, hand-pulled pigweeds that I fed to the hogs, hoed grass and not the butterbean plants.

Looking back, we did not do some of the practices I tell homeowners about when they call with fruit tree questions. Our peach tree that was next to my dad’s nightclub grew peaches with brown fuzzy stuff (Brown Rot), and the trunk always had this black gummy substance oozing from it (Gummosis). Some of the plums came with a prize (a worm) inside.

However, the pear trees never let us down. They were always loaded with big misshapen, knotted, greenish-yellow pears (Kieffer) that we harvested in the winter. At times, the branches would break under the weight of the pears. I don’t usually see those types of pears in the stores, with the character or blemishes. I remember them being so crisp and sweet when I bit into them.

My mom was not much of a baker. She would have my aunt Barbara, or Beulah, the neighbor, make her cakes and pies for the holidays. I do have a memory of her making a pear pie; I was surprised, but then we had a lot of pears. Marie Barone summed up my pear experience in the very first episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” She said, “They’re very nice pears, but there are so many of them.”

So, if you are thinking about growing your own fruit trees, bare-root trees may be planted in late fall, winter and early spring. This is why you may be seeing them now in the big box stores or at your local nurseries. Here are a few things to consider.

♦ Choose a site with well-drained soil that gets 8-10 hours of sun per day;

♦ Space trees apart according to the label;

♦ Self-unfruitful means planting two different varieties with the same pollination code to result in fruiting;

♦ Dig the hole twice as wide as the root ball and deep enough so that the tree is planted at the same depth that it was at the nursery;

♦ Graft union should be 2-3 inches above the ground;

♦ Prune back to 18-30 inches after planting, if they were not topped at the nursery;

♦ Prune suckers from the base of tree during the growing season;

♦ Soil pH, depending on the tree, should be between 6.0 and 6.5 for best growth;

♦ Fertilize trees with 10-10-10 in March, May, June and July, depending on tree fruit;

♦ Water your trees thoroughly.

If you are reading this and have mature fruit trees in the landscape, here’s what you should be doing:

♦ Prune dead, diseased or damaged wood now while they are dormant to promote an invigorating plant response;

♦ Excessive pruning in the winter can promote excessive vegetative growth and little to no fruit;

♦ Prune in the summer to slow growth;

♦ Begin fertilizing in March with 10-10-10;

♦ Avoid spraying fruit trees when flowers are open; insecticides sprayed at that time kill bees and other pollinators;

♦ Thin fruit when possible;

♦ Spray program should include dormant spray or dormant oil, insecticidal sprays, and fungicidal sprays;

♦ Spraying your trees coincides with the plant and fruit development. The different growth stages include dormancy, pre-blossom stage, blossom, petal fall and fruit formation;

♦ Read the label before applying pesticides.

For more information on fruit tree selection and maintenance, contact a local extension office or call (800) ASK-UGA1.

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