In This Article we will discuss the following: When to Fertilize, How to Measure Growth, Choosing Your Fertilizer, How Much Fertilizer to Use, and Applying the Fertilizer in your specific applications.

To produce abundant fruit different types of fruit trees will need to "eat". Young trees need good nutrition to grow and produce an abundant harvest, just like vegetables, flowers, and other plants. Maximize your growing season with our helpful video. Tricia explains if, when, and how much to fertilize your fruit trees. Take note of the information below to learn the 5 Easy Steps for fertilizing your fruit trees! Start producing fruit from your grafter trees sooner with our guide.

Step 1: When to Fertilize Your Fruit Trees

Fruit trees that grow give us a rewarding crop in the summer and fall, but we need to feed them. Growing fruit trees can be an extremely rewarding experience when done well. Having an Established root system will help with nutrient uptake. The best time to fertilize is in the early spring, just before bud break. You can feed throughout the summer, but it is best to stop applying any nitrogen after July. 

Step 2: Measure to Decide if You Need to Fertilize

Not all fruit trees need to be fed every year, nor in the same amounts. If you feed them too much nitrogen, they will grow lots of leaves but give you very little fruit. Luckily, the tree can tell you what it needs, and when it's time to fertilize. Using organic nitrogen sources is recommended to prevent "burning".

Steps in Measuring the Previous Year's Growth

• First: Locate last year’s growth rings. The growth ring is the point on the branch where the fruit tree started growing in the previous season. The newest shoot growth that you will be measuring is often a different color than the rest of the branch.
• Second: Measure from the growth ring all the way to the end of the branch. Repeat these measurements at several spots around the fruit tree.
• Third: Calculate the average of these measurements. This is the previous season’s “annual growth” of the fruit tree.

Repeat this step for each of your fruit trees. Even if you have multiple fruit trees that are the same kind and age, they may not have grown equally. As a result, these trees may require different amounts of fertilizer. 

Note–if you have pruned your fruit tree significantly more than normal, so that you’ve removed over 20% of its canopy within the last year, don’t fertilize until the next year.

Check the Chart to Evaluate Growth

Finally, use this chart to evaluate your fruit tree’s annual growth. If the fruit tree’s growth rate is at the low end or below annual target growth, then you should fertilize the fruit tree this year. If your fruit tree’s growth rate is at the high end or above the annual target growth rate, you do not need to fertilize this year (but measure again next year in case that changes!).

• Peaches and nectarines (non-bearing young fruit trees) should grow 18"-24", mature bearing trees should grow 12"-18"
• Apples and pear trees (non-bearing young fruit) should grow 18"-30", mature bearing pears and non-spur type apples should grow 12"-18"
• Bearing spur apples should grow 6"-10"
• Plums and sweet cherries (non-bearing young fruit trees) should grow 22"-36", mature bearing trees should grow 8"
• Tart cherries (non-bearing young fruit trees) should grow 12"-24", bearing mature trees should grow 8"

Step Three: Choose the Right Fertilizer

• Fruit trees prefer an organic, high nitrogen fertilizer
• Blood meal, soybean meal, composted chicken manure, cottonseed meal, and feather meal are all good, organic fertilizers high in nitrogen
• There are also specially formulated fruit tree fertilizers
• In addition to nitrogen, your fruit tree needs other macro and micronutrients. Adding compost when you fertilize is a good way to provide organic matter and trace minerals
• Azomite or Cascade Remineralizing Soil Boost are good sources of trace minerals.
• A soil test can tell you whether there is a calcium deficiency, or if you need to add more phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients.

Step Four: Calculate how Much Fertilizer to Use

• More is not always better when it comes to fertilizing your fruit trees. Now that you know that your fruit tree needs fertilizer and you have picked the perfect fertilizer to use, you’ll need to determine the correct amount to use on each fruit tree.
• The amount of fertilizer you should use is based on the age or size of the fruit tree, and the nitrogen-value on the package.

Determining How Much Fertilizer to Use

• Planted trees need 0.10 pounds of “actual nitrogen” per year of age, or per inch of trunk diameter (measured 1 foot above the ground). The maximum you should give a fruit tree in a year is 1 pound of actual nitrogen.
• For example, if your fruit tree has a diameter of 5 inches (or, if your tree is 5 years old), multiply 5 by 0.10 pounds of nitrogen, equals 0.5 lb. This means that the fruit tree will need 0.5 lb of actual nitrogen.
• But wait, you’re not done yet! “Actual nitrogen” pounds is not as simple as just weighing out that amount of fertilizer, because there is more in a fertilizer than just nitrogen.
• The NPK numbers on fertilizer show the percentage of nutrients per pound of fertilizer, not the actual amount. N, P and K refer to nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
• For example, if the N listed on the fertilizer package is 7 (meaning 7% nitrogen), such as with E.B. Stone’s Fruit Tree fertilizer, then there is 0.07 pounds of actual nitrogen for every pound of fertilizer.
• To calculate how much fertilizer to apply, divide the amount of actual nitrogen the fruit tree needs by the amount of actual nitrogen per pound in the fertilizer.
• So, using the previous examples, a five-year-old apple tree needs 0.5 lb of nitrogen. The E.B. Stone Fruit Tree Fertilizer has an N-value of 7 on the package, meaning it has 0.07 lb nitrogen per pound of fertilizer. Half a pound, or 0.5 lb, divided by 0.07 lb equals 7 lbs. The answer–7 pounds–is the amount of this fertilizer to apply to the fruit tree.

Step Five: Applying the Fertilizer

• To help the fruit tree “eat” the fertilizer most efficiently, apply the fertilizer evenly. Start a foot away from the trunk and continue all the way to the “drip line.” The drip line is the perimeter of the tree’s farthest reaching branches.
• The easiest way to do this is simply by spreading the fertilizer on the ground and raking it in.
• Digging a series of small holes on the soil surface is another method of applying fertilizer. It is a bit more work, but it best ensures the fertilizer is getting to the fruit tree roots, especially when using a fertilizer containing less-soluble nutrients like phosphorus and mycorrhizae.
• Dig the holes six inches down and 12” to 18” apart, throughout the same area as you would have spread the fertilizer. To make the digging job easy, you can use an auger attachment with a cordless drill. Sprinkle a little bit of fertilizer in each hole until it is used up.
• Once you have finished fertilizing, spread an inch-deep layer of compost around the fruit tree and water well.
• Soil ph needs to be maintained so that the tree can "uptake" certain nutrients.

Resources

• For more information on all aspects of fertilizing apple and fruit trees—From selecting and planting a bare root, pruning, controlling pests, and even how to preserve your harvest—browse our videos and articles in Fruit Tree Central. Some staff-favorite books on fruit trees are The Home Orchard from UC Davis, along with The Fruit Gardener's Bible.
• Keep on living the dream with your organic orchard, now that you know when and how to fertilize your fruit trees.