Deciduous trees, such as the Apple, Apricot, Cherry, Fig, Pear, Plum, Peach and Nectarine trees, lose thier leaves in winter. These trees are perfect in areas of your garden where you need the shade in summer and more sunshine in winter.
Deciduous fruit trees will prefer an open sunny area and will grow in a variety of soils, as long as thier is good deep drainage, they will not tolerate waterlogged soils.As these trees are dormant in winter, all prunning should take place at this time, this will regulate growth of branches, flowers and fruit. Deciduous fruit trees should be pruned to a vase shape structure. Young trees generally are pruned back hard for the first few years to make a strong support of branches which will carry heavy fruit. As the tree gets older the main concern of pruning is to remove dead and diseased wood, inward growing branches and thin overcrowded growth.Deciduous fruit trees, like all other plants require a good source of food. For younger trees, smaller amounts of fertiliser should be used to prevent burning the roots.The best time to fertlise is in early spring.
