Brown rot is one very common disease to fruit trees. This fungus is quite the troublemaker, growing on fruit left on the tree. It can travel from fruit left to rot on the tree to fruit just ripening, ruining the fresh fruit.

Brown rot is in part caused by poor air circulation. You can help your tree avoid it by regular pruning, which will improve air circulation. The other, hopefully obvious thing you can do to help is remove all fruit when the season is over, even if it is unusable.

Another common problem is the cytospora canker, also called valsa canker. This is a soft, dark area that appears on branches. Gum appears on the bark, and the problem develops into a sunken area beneath the gum. Through the years, the bark breaks down and a black fungus develops.

As this generally enters through wounds on your tree, the first thing you need to do is prune your tree correctly. Make sure you prune at the right time of year, and not when the weather is too wet or the tree is dormant. Insects can also cause damage which allows this to enter.

Cytospora canker can infect a variety of trees, but the fruit tree it most often infects is the peach.

Plum trees are more susceptible to black knot. Pretty easy to figure out what this one looks like just from the name. The rough growths this causes are easy to spot on branches. The only solution is to remove the branch. Don’t make it into mulch for the tree, or the infection will have an easy time coming back.

In general you need to keep up with cleaning up the fruit. Rotting fruit attracts bees and wasps, which can make harvesting your fruit rather more uncomfortable. Rotting fruit also attracts fruit tree diseases. Clean up all around your fruit tree, both on the ground and on the branches as best you can.

Anytime you suspect an infection in your fruit tree, take a sample to your local nursery. Very often employees can help you to identify the problem and how to take care of it. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble by identifying problems as soon as you spot them, rather than waiting. You might even save your tree’s life.

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Your tree needs to be pruned once a year, either in late winter or spring. This will help to keep its branches strong, so that they do not break from excess weight when the tree is producing fruit. This can also be used to control the overall shape of the tree. You want to remove water sprouts, which are upright shoots that appear quickly. These are not good for the tree’s development or fruit production. You only want to remove major branches if you absolutely must.

As your tree begins to produce fruit, you will need to thin out the fruit. This serves two purposes. One, it allows the fruit that does grow to be larger and taste better. Two, it keeps the branches from breaking because there is too much fruit on them.

Don’t expect your fruit tree to produce the same amount every year. Some years it will produce more, others less. I had a plum tree growing up that one year produced more fruit than we could even manage to give away. We went all around the block giving away plums, sometimes being given other garden produce in return, but still couldn’t get rid of the plums fast enough. Other years there were enough plums for our family and a few family friends, but not much more.

Some fruit trees have relatively short lifespans, 20-30 years or so. This is just one of the things you will have to deal with.

Do not overwater your fruit tree. Too much water will damage your tree.

Proper fertilization is very helpful. The easiest person to ask is your local nursery employee, as needs vary depending on the type of tree.

Disease can be a major problem for fruit trees. I’ve seen many trees with curl leaf, which is just what it sounds like. Any time you see an obvious problem, remove a small branch with the problem and head to the nursery to see what to do about it. Sometimes you’ll be told to remove all leaves or branches with the problem, other times another solution will be suggested.

As your tree produces fruit, make sure you clean up all the excess that falls to the ground or that birds and bugs have eaten part of, but are still on the tree. You can toss these in the compost or throw in the trash, but they are unhealthy for the tree if you just leave them there.

Your fruit tree takes an investment at first, but the payback is enormous. You get fresh fruit that, through the years, costs you far less than what you would pay at the grocery store, and no worries about pesticides or wax on your fruit. Children love to run out and pick fruit right off the tree, so you have an instant healthy snack for the entire family.

But first you have to get it into the ground and growing strong. Trees can take a little work to get going, especially when it’s going to be growing something as heavy as a full load of fruit.

When you get your tree home, you will need to dig a hole about twice as wide as the container the tree came in, and just as deep. That may not be easy, depending on the size of tree you have chosen, but it is necessary. This makes it easier to fill in the hole after you have put the tree in. Any extra dirt you have can go to your compost pile, be spread in places in your yard that need a little extra dirt, whatever you need it for. You can also use the dirt to create a mounded circle around the tree, to encourage water to stay around your tree.

Do not plant the tree any deeper than it was in its container. With most fruit trees you will notice a graft line, which is where your tree has been grafted onto the roots of a different fruit tree. This is very common practice – in fact, you can buy fruit trees that will grow more than one kind of fruit for you! If the graft line gets buried, the tree may revert to the kind of tree the roots came from.

Young fruit trees often need stakes to help them stay up when they are first planted. This is not too hard to do. Buy one or two stakes, depending on your preferences, and pound a couple inches into the ground a foot or so away from the tree. Use some twine, rope or even an old nylon to tie the stake to the tree. This does not need to be too tight, as the tree does need to grow. It’s just a little extra support for the tree. Remove it when the tree is properly established in a year, more or less.

Your tree may try to start producing fruit its first year or so in the ground. I suggest the first couple years you do not allow it to do so, as the tree really needs to use that time to get established. Take blooms and/or young fruit off immediately.

In a couple years, the tree will be sturdy and you will be able to let it produce fruit. Your entire family, and possibly your entire neighborhood will appreciate what your tree can produce.