My family has been growing apples in western North Carolina since the early 1900s. While our focus is on commercial apple production, we always keep a few peach, cherry and pear trees for family use.

Winter is a welcome season for those who own and care for an orchard. It’s time to prune or shape fruit trees, plan and prepare for spring bloom and growth.

As farmers, we have seen wide changes in equipment, weather patterns and market patterns, but many seasonal practices remain true. Let’s see how to take care of fruit trees over the winter.

Protect young trees from animals

Apple trees can live for 100 years, but usually reach their primary fruit production in about 25 to 30 years. Therefore, maintaining a bountiful harvest by replacing older trees with young trees is a constant practice. Although usually planted in late fall, these trees are most susceptible to rodent damage during the winter months when food sources are less abundant.

If a mulch or guard was not added at the time of planting, it can be added in the winter to protect the trees from animals that may chew the bark. Covers provide protection against rabbits, mice, voles, deer, squirrels and other rodents that can destroy young trees.

You can find tree guards made of wire, vinyl or plastic. We usually use spiral vinyl wrap that is easy to apply and expand as the tree grows.

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Mow and remove debris from under trees

Many fruit trees are deciduous and lose their leaves in autumn. To prevent the spread of harmful insects and diseases such as apple scab, it is a good idea to remove fallen leaves. Leaves can be raked if you only have a few trees or you can mow below the tree line. Mowing will shred the leaves and help them decay much faster.

Prune Fruit Trees

Perhaps the most critical winter task for fruit trees is proper pruning to maintain balanced growth, remove dead wood and improve light penetration. Although different types of fruit trees may require different pruning, there are some general guidelines for fruit tree pruning.

• Pruning during dormancy. Trees should only be pruned while dormant before buds begin to swell in late winter or early spring, depending on your growing zone.
• Shape young trees. Young trees (one to five years old) should be shaped with a central front trunk and scaffolding. Additional pruning should be limited to removing water shoots or limbs that are obstructing or shading permanent scaffolding, broken branches or weak growth.
• Prune wisely. Trees that are six to 10 years old grow quickly. Inspect each scaffold leg from the side of the center guide and remove only thin wood, broken or damaged branches and water sprouts. Excessive pruning will delay the fruiting of the tree.
• Maintain the size of mature trees. Mature trees will need more pruning to keep the tree at a manageable size without stimulating more growth. In addition to removing water sprouts, broken limbs and thin wood, moderate pruning at the top of the tree is necessary each year to reduce growth. Never remove all the branches from the top of the tree, leaving the center of the tree open. Trees in this age group need to be pruned both externally and internally. Limbs touching the ground should be removed.
• Remove pruned limbs. All pruned branches should be removed from under the trees and mulched or burned.

Remove trees as needed

If the tree is dead, diseased or no longer bearing fruit, winter is the right time to remove it from the orchard or garden. If the trees are planted too close and crowd each other, pruning will not be enough; trees should be removed to improve spacing. Your yield will drop in a few years, but you’ll have much healthier trees in your orchard.

Plan and prepare

Winter is the time when apple growers plan and prepare for the seasons to come. We attend seminars on pest control and the safe and responsible use of chemicals. We fix equipment, meet with potential buyers for next year’s crop and contact suppliers like beekeepers who supply hives to help with pollination.

Winter is a good time to test the soil in your orchard or garden. The results may indicate that certain nutrients such as lime should be added before the trees start growing in the spring.