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Plant Of The Month At Kings Is Deciduous Fruit Trees

Friday 15 July 2016, 10:23AM

By Beckie Wright

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As the dark, mildly cold depths of winter finally descend, it’s a great time to plan out and plant our fruit tree garden. Planting now ensures that our trees get settled in, and have had time to put roots down before the next growing season, allowing them to get off to a flying start. However, before getting stuck in, a bit of planning is always useful, for whether we’re growing our own orchard on a massive section, or are squeezing a few fruit trees into pots, it’s worth getting things right now to make sure that we’re set up for success. 

Kings’ Plant Barn’s best recommendation is to plan before we plant, as if we get everything right now we will save ourselves lots of time in the future, and in around four years we will hopefully be enjoying eh fruits of our labour, rather than struggling to deal with trees planted in the wrong spot.

As the Kings’ team explain, correct siting is key. Growing fruit trees is relatively straight-forward provided that they have enough space to grow, are planted in nice fertile free-draining soil, and get at least six hours of full sun a day. However, if we are worried about our soil, as long as we put some care into the preparation we can plant into a wide array of soil types, including sandy, volcanic or clay.

Fruit trees planted too closely together often struggle as they are more likely to compete for water and nutrients, and are more likely to get disease. So for happy healthy trees, we need to make sure we give them space to flourish. Growing dwarf trees or espaliering trees is a great way to save space, and for more information on this, Kings staff are on hand to assist. Also, before planting we need to check to see if the tree is self fertile, and if not we may need to plant a pollinator. Peaches and nectarines are all self fertile (except some dwarfing varieties). Some plums (Damsons, Santa Rosa, and Billington) and some apples (Royal Gala) are self fertile, but if we’re not sure, we need to check the Kings’ pollination guide online. 

Pollination can also be improved by encouraging the insects that pollinate fruit trees (such as bees) to come into the garden. To attract bees and other pollinators we should plant a wide array of flowers, including: lavender, rosemary, thyme, Echinacea, bergamot, and alyssum.

For further information on Kings and their landscape design services, please visit the website at http://www.kings.co.nz .

 

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As the dark, mildly cold depths of winter finally descend, it’s a great time to plan out and plant our fruit tree garden. Planting now ensures that our trees get settled in, and have had time to put roots down before the next growing season, allowing them to get off to a flying start. However, before getting stuck in, a bit of planning is always useful, for whether we’re growing our own orchard on a massive section, or are squeezing a few fruit trees into pots, it’s worth getting things right now to make sure that we’re set up for success. 

 

Kings’ Plant Barn’s best recommendation is to plan before we plant, as if we get everything right now we will save ourselves lots of time in the future, and in around four years we will hopefully be enjoying eh fruits of our labour, rather than struggling to deal with trees planted in the wrong spot.

 

As the Kings’ team explain, correct siting is key. Growing fruit trees is relatively straight-forward provided that they have enough space to grow, are planted in nice fertile free-draining soil, and get at least six hours of full sun a day. However, if we are worried about our soil, as long as we put some care into the preparation we can plant into a wide array of soil types, including sandy, volcanic or clay.

 

Fruit trees planted too closely together often struggle as they are more likely to compete for water and nutrients, and are more likely to get disease. So for happy healthy trees, we need to make sure we give them space to flourish. Growing dwarf trees or espaliering trees is a great way to save space, and for more information on this, Kings staff are on hand to assist. Also, before planting we need to check to see if the tree is self fertile, and if not we may need to plant a pollinator. Peaches and nectarines are all self fertile (except some dwarfing varieties). Some plums (Damsons, Santa Rosa, and Billington) and some apples (Royal Gala) are self fertile, but if we’re not sure, we need to check the Kings’ pollination guide online. 

Pollination can also be improved by encouraging the insects that pollinate fruit trees (such as bees) to come into the garden. To attract bees and other pollinators we should plant a wide array of flowers, including: lavender, rosemary, thyme, Echinacea, bergamot, and alyssum.

 

For further information on Kings and their landscape design services, please visit the website at http://www.kings.co.nz .

 

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