Autumn fruit tree care: clean up and get ready
Autumn fruit tree care for March to May: finishing the harvest, orchard clean-up, soil tests, cover crops, citrus care and ordering trees for winter.
Autumn (March to May in southern Australia) is a quieter time in the orchard, but the work you do now sets up next year. Late fruit is picked, deciduous trees colour and drop their leaves, and citrus start to ripen.
Finish the harvest
Pick late apples, pears, persimmons, feijoas and figs as they ripen. Store only sound, unbruised fruit. Late fruit fly can still be active, so keep traps up and clean up fallen fruit until the weather cools.
Orchard hygiene
Many pests and diseases spend winter on fallen fruit and leaves or in old mummified fruit left on the tree. A good clean-up now cuts the problem next spring.
- Remove and destroy any mummified fruit still hanging on trees.
- Rake up fallen leaves under apples and pears to reduce scab, and compost them hot or remove them.
- Take down codling moth bands and destroy the grubs sheltering inside.
Care for the soil
- Get a soil test done, and apply lime or dolomite if needed. It has time to work over winter.
- Spread compost under trees and top up mulch.
- Sow a cover crop between rows (oats, faba beans, vetch) to protect and feed the soil over winter.
- Ease off on watering as the weather cools, but don't let evergreen trees dry out.
Watch the citrus
Citrus are ripening and still growing roots. Give them a light autumn feed in early autumn in warmer areas, keep them watered, and check for scale and sooty mould.
Plan and order
Autumn is the time to plan what to plant in winter. Nurseries take orders for bare-rooted trees now, and the best varieties sell out. Look back over the season: which trees did well, which struggled, and what would you change?
Autumn checklist
- Finish picking late fruit and store it well
- Remove mummified fruit and clean up fallen leaves
- Soil test, lime if needed, compost and mulch
- Sow a winter cover crop
- Feed and water citrus
- Order bare-rooted trees for winter planting
Autumn is a good time to look back over your notes and harvests before planning next year. In Trees n Bees the season's work, sprays and harvests are in one place, soil tests line up with last year's, and if you are adding trees this winter the orchard planner gives you the list to order.