New fruit trees stopped doing anything

[d000hg]

I bought 5 small fruit trees by mail about 3 months back - about 5 foot high but basically arrived as single 'sticks' (I forget the proper term).

I planted 3 (apple, plum, cherry) in my garden and two (apple, pear) in pots. All were watered well the first week or so, and planted in a mix of topsoil and compost.

The ones in the garden started growing first and looked to be doing well - I was worried the potted ones were in trouble but they started to bud a week or two later.
However now I'm in the opposite situation. The potted ones are thriving and are awash with leaves and have put on many new branches up to 6" long which have started to harden into proper brown wood. Whereas the garden ones put out a first bunch of leaves and then have just stopped and done nothing. The leaves are still green but no branches have grown, the leaves are just sitting on the original trunk and no more leaves are budding.

We've had a fair amount of rain so I don't think watering could be the issue, but I'm a bit stuck what to do. And I have no idea if this is a problem or not - I was kind of assuming trees need to put on enough growth before winter to survive into next spring?

Is there some sort of fertiliser I can buy for outside small trees, like a grown up miracle gro?!

[starloc]

Plants grow in cycles , roots grow then shoots grow etc

Its more usual to plant during the winter so a plant will grow roots underground to support the top growth in warmer weather , planting in the warmer weather will usually slow the establishment

They should be fine through the winter , I wouldnt fertilise now, if you do they may grow new shoots that dont harden enough before the frosts

[orangepippin]

I am quite surprised that you were able to plant what sound like "bare-root" trees so late in the spring and have them survive, let alone thrive. I agree with starloc though, there is not point doing anything further at this stage.

The reason the ones in the garden are not doing as well is probably because, as you stated, they started to grow too quickly after you planted them, and then the roots could not keep up and they have suffered a check to their growth. For some reason the pot grown ones survived that initial hurdle.

I expect you would have got better results if you had cut them all back to about 3ft when you planted them, there are usually instructions to that effect when the trees are supplied. Cutting them back prevents the top of the tree growing too fast for the roots.

[veggiechicken]

Did you order them from a company with Bargains in its name?

[Kirk]

Just leave them and see what happens next year.
Think they are termed Whips.

[d000hg]

Thanks for the advice. I hadn't considered that not growing might be a good/normal thing. I was simply thinking "more foliage good, less foliage bad"

Is there any point watering once they've been in 3 months, or should they be fine except in protracted periods of drought?

[FB.]

Is there any point watering once they've been in 3 months, or should they be fine except in protracted periods of drought?

You didn't mention which rootstocks your trees are on. That can make a big difference to their behaviour.

I recently argued the suitability of modern rootstocks compared to their owner's expectations with another forum member via email ( ), and the conclusion was that unless a fruit tree is on the very vigorous "full size" seedling-equivalent rootstocks (apple M25, apple MM111, pear Pyrus.communis, plum Brompton, plum Myrobalan, cherry F12/1), it will usually require regular feeding, watering, weeding and spraying for pest and diseases if it is to reach its potential.
Without such intensive care, it will probably barely grow half as much as "the books" would have you believe, unless your soil is particularly good.

For a "neglected" tree, only the strongest rootstocks are likely to be self-sufficient, and in "neglected" conditions they will often behave like dwarfs as they fend-off attacks from pests, diseases and have to go searching for their own food and water.

I plant mine on strong roots and then let them get on with it ('cos I'm lazy). The strong roots usually still manage to grow at least a few shoots several inches long in the first season.
Trees on strong roots which don't grow-away quickly often turn out to be diseased and I now have a policy of "zero tolerance" among my trees where a non-grower is pulled out, burned and replaced.
Often sick trees start to show symptoms in mid-summer (August) such as yellowing leaves, wilting, shoot dieback, purplish tints on the leaves or silvery tints on the leaves.

[d000hg]

Well I've no idea what the rootstocks are, other than that they are grafted onto something The roots looked pretty decent when I planted them, as far as I could tell - and I made sure to soak them properly.

Watering presumably can't hurt, is there anything specific you'd recommend otherwise? If they grow shoots which don't harden before frosts, does that actually cause any harm other than this growth being wasted?

[FB.]

Without knowing which rootstock, it's not easy to suggest how to manage them, and some rootstocks will be completely unsuitable for growing in certain ways or certain conditions.

Knowing their origin might help to work out what rootstock they are on. Most likely MM106 (apple), St.Julien A (plum), Quince A (pear) and Colt (cherry) but just because they are the most common rootstocks in use doesn't guarantee that's what you have.

Feeding and watering shouldn't hurt, but too much water too often may encourage root rots and diseases.

Big roots but no growth of a maiden whip sounds odd. I would be wondering why.
I suggest take a careful look at the trunk at ground level and look for any unusual appearance to the bark of the lower trunk, such as cracks, sunken areas, discoloured areas. Obviously there will be a scar at the point of grafting.

If the trees haven't grown by now, they probably won't do much more this year. Trees start to slowly shut down over the next few months, to be dormant by winter. Any new shoots which do grow have a good chance of hardening-off before the worst frosts (tree dormancy is mostly influenced by temperature, so as the tree detects the heat of summer giving way to the chilly evenings of autumn the growth should stop). Most fruit tree leaves will withstand a couple of degrees of frost.

[d000hg]

Big roots but no growth of a maiden whip sounds odd. I would be wondering why.

In English please?

Bizarrely, all the trees round here seem to be growing at their fastest right now, including the established ones... in the last few weeks the trees outside our house have grown 6" of new growth which is even more than they grew in spring. In fact it's almost like spring has arrive!

[FB.]

In English please?

A maiden whip is a baby tree, usually about a year after it was grafted. It is basically just a single stem about 1-2cm diameter and 1-1.75metres in height.
A single stem maiden usually establishes quickly if it is healthy and if the roots are vigorous enough for the growing conditions. It doesn't require many roots to get it growing and should have plenty of vigour of its own, so when you said that they had good root systems (and they haven't dried out due to lack of water) it's even more surprising that they didn't take off.

So I'm wondering whether the roots have picked up a disease.
I've lost many fruit trees on the common rootstocks listed earlier to root diseases because they need more care than I'm prepared to give them. The early warning sign was poor growth, wilting and sometimes peculiar/discoloured leaves (as mentioned above).

I can make a strong connection between trees of mine which died and the nursery which supplied the tree; after speaking to other fruit growers it seems as if some nurseries have a bit of a reputation for substandard stock while other fruit tree suppliers have a reputation for high quality stock which is healthy, true-to-type and grows-away well.

[d000hg]

I see, thanks for the terminology explanation. These are exactly what I received - just looked like a bunch of dead sticks

They all did establish pretty quickly, the ones in the main garden especially. Lots of buds and leaves. Those first bunch of leaves are there, but no actual branches have followed whereas on the potted ones the initial leaves were followed by some pretty good branching.

The leaves look pretty healthy, there just haven't been any new ones for quite a while. Obviously the 5 trees are all different though I have 2 apple varieties, one potted and one planted.

Possibly I am expecting too much growth - I can get photos of all 5 trees if anyone would find that useful.

All 5 came packed together, were soaked in the same bucket of water together, and planted in the same soil. So is it likely that only some would be diseased?

[FB.]

If they have a root disease which is preventing them growing, it has a good chance of showing by now as a peculiar appearance of the bark between ground level and the graft.
Go and look at the bottom of the trunk of your trees to check. If there are any suspicious-looking areas on the lower part of the trunk take a picture for us to look at.

If the lower trunk looks healthy and if the leaves don't have purplish or silver-grey sheen to them, the plants probably just need more time to establish for some reason.

I posted a picture of the late-stage crown/root-rot on the following topic about a month ago, when I lost yet another apple tree on MM106 rootstock, probably because MM106 needs more care than I am willing/able to give:
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ust_73710.html