Unfortunately, we experienced some late frosts. In the fruit tree world, that means that we were at high risk for losing our fruit crop for the year, which happened in most of the state.
It got low enough temperature-wise that it killed the blossoms or the young fruits that were just setting on the trees, and most of the state of Utah will experience what I'm going to call a "fruit famine."
That is unfortunate because we grow some amazing fruit along the state. This year we're just going to have very, very little.
The questions we've been getting from tree owners are: "What do I do with my tree now that it doesn't have fruit on it? Is there anything different?"
There's a couple of things that we can manage a little bit differently on our fruit trees.
Most of it's going to be business as usual. We're still going to water, we're still going to fertilize, and we're still going to monitor for pests and treat trees accordingly to keep them happy and healthy. That way, we'll have a better fruit load next year.
Some of the things that you can change, and some of the things to keep in mind, is trees don't need as much fertilizer this year. All the energy that would have gone into those fruits are going to go into the tree itself, so we don't want them to be too bushy, and we can cut back a little bit on the nitrogen in our fertilizer regimens.
We can cut back a little bit on the water, though. I wouldn't recommend cutting back too drastically. Again, they're not going to be requiring as much to grow those fruits, and we can cut back a little bit.
Be careful — we want to make sure that they aren't going to be stressed as we go into summer, so they still need proper water.
The other thing is pests. Most of our pests are going to be the same, they don't really don't change that much.
One of the pests, the coddling moth, is an issue if you have apples and pears.
Since we don't have apples and pears this year, though, we're not worried about worms getting into the fruits because they're not there to get into.
So we don't necessarily need to spray for coddling moth, but we should still treat our stone fruits, like peaches, apricots, cherries, and plums, for peach twig borer.
Otherwise, it's kind of business as normal. So, I hope that helps if you have fruit trees, and hope everyone's gardens are doing well.
This is Ben with Utah State University Extension. Hope everyone has a great rest of their spring.