Feeding trees

[Wolfie]

Recently looked at a Cherry tree that’s situated in a lawned area in the communal gardens for a block of flats that I do work for. The Cherry has quite a spare leaf covering (probably less than 50%) but no major dead wood and no obvious signs of fire blight, bacterial canker or fungal fruiting bodies.

So, do you think it is worth trying to give it a nutrient feed to try and help it?

I’ve not had much experience with this kind of thing so any advice would be greatly appreciated. There is a bit of intervain chlorosis and some leaf curl from the sides.

Question:

• How and what to apply.

• How long to expect to see results.

• Can treatment of lawns affect trees?

• Has anyone tried applying sugar into the root zone to give a tree a quick boost? Heard this at a Dr Glynn Percival seminar once. Does it need to be any special sugar or would caster work just as well?

Thanks in advance, Ed.

[Happy when high]

I have no idea maybe try jelly tots for that quick boost.

Sorry to be no help at all. I shall pay attention to this thread i might learn something.

[DWOM]

Lay a good thick mulch down out to the drip line, further if you can. Doubt you'll see much response until next season at least.

 

I think that molasses can be used to boost micro-herds and is a good activator for compost teas, so worth a shot maybe.

 

Oh and petro-chem lawn fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides will definable not help the root system and the uptake of nutrient.

[Scottie]

Does the soil around the tree look compacted? Air spading and a good mulch could help.

[Lee Winger]

Sounds to me like the tree might be livining in compacted soil, get a fork and breaker bar out and give it a good watering before going any further....

[Andy Collins]

This year I have seen many sparsely leafed cherries. This is in part due to the long dry spring, the trees have tried to reduce moisture loss through minimising their leaf cover followed by a damper warm period which has led to mildews forming on many plants.Dont forget we also had some sharp late frosts which killed off many new opening buds. This is the time of year to prune back stone fruits if required. It can never do any harm to aerate and mulch around the base, hopefully give the trees a better start next spring.