Now, for the top portion of your tree, if the rest of the plantlife in your area is waking up (it’s still dormant and snowy for us here!) you might want to check that the pear tree is still alive. Pears are one of the last trees to leaf out in the spring, but you can check to see if it’s still living by taking your thumb nail (or a butter knife) and scratching a small spot on the trunk of the tree*, about halfway up. Just scratch a layer of bark away and look for signs of life: greenish, whitish, wet wood beneath the scratch means the tree is still living and most likely still dormant; dry, hard, brown wood beneath the scratch means the grafted part of the tree failed to live.

*Don’t do this on a branch or some other limb because those won’t tell much about the rest of the tree in this case.

If you find that your pear tree didn’t make it, please let our customer support team know [800.325.4180] so that we may look into replacing it for you this spring!

We recommend thinning anyway, on most fruit trees, to encourage a better quality fruit. It would simply be even more beneficial for a variety that tends to overbear.

There are a few things that may cause leaves to wilt, including heat, sun, and wind so it is most likely weather related. If you have been getting rain in your area regularly you should not need to water additionally but, if you have not been getting rain every 7-10 days, you should consider watering (about a gallon every week or so, of no rain) to keep your trees from suffering. Each tree is different so even if your Honeycrisp is doing fine, it won’t determine how your Gala reacts to the weather in its new environment.

Apple trees take 2-5 years after being planted and established in your yard before they start bearing. It may seem like forever to your kids but they will be thrilled when your trees are ready and start producing apples right before their eyes!

P.S. I used bloodmeal fertilizer (for fruit trees) for these trees.

On average, a dwarf fruit tree should live/bear up to 25 years — but this will vary between the type of fruit tree it is, the environment it lives in, and the nature of the individual tree itself.

I bought/planted a Stark hardy kiwi fall of 2010 and even though it’s doing well for now, I realized that I picked a poor location to plant it and would like to move it. Would I be safe doing this in fall when it’s dormant? Any advice on transplanting it? I also read that once it’s fruiting it may produce better if I have both a male and female even though it said self-fertilizing. Is this true?

I’d also like to transplant a quite large volunteer red raspberry bush. It’s doing beautifully so clearly it likes it’s location but I don’t! Any advice would be great.

Finally, could you help me understand how to determine what 1″ of water/week means for watering my fruit trees? Can you translate this into total number of gallons or something like that?

Thanks! Melissa