Caring for young trees

With the growing season well under way, there isn’t a lot of general maintenance to do at Pockett’s Orchard. At today’s work party with the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, we focused exclusively on the young trees to give them some care and maintenance. We planted around 15 younger trees over the last few years and each has a stock proof barrier, a stake and some deer/rabbit guards. The idea today was to get in the middle and take apart any guards and fixings, do some weeding and then see what needs to be put back. Young apple tree after maintenance The staking approach is a bit of an art more than science. We would give the tree a gentle shake and make sure it didn’t catch or touch the deer guard. And then we’d see if the ground moved also with the tree. If it did, then the stake still needs to be in place as the tree roots have not yet established firmly enough. I removed some plastic cable ties from some and replaced with metal wire which can be unpicked more easily in future than…