Gadenin日本語Get the appThe year at a glance
There is no dormant season, so this calendar is built around temperature thresholds and around the life of individual fruit rather than around a single annual cycle. Read it as four phases that overlap: the spring move outdoors, the summer of setting and supporting fruit, the autumn of ripening and the move back under cover, and the winter of keeping the tree alive and pest free.
| Phase | Trigger | Main jobs | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late winter, still under cover | Days lengthening, first flush of buds | Light prune, top-dress the pot, start feeding at quarter strength | Scale and mealybug built up over winter |
| Spring, moving outdoors | Night minimum reliably above 50F (10C) | Harden off over 10-14 days, repot or root prune if due, thin fruitlets | Leaf drop and sunburn from moving too fast |
| Summer | Warm settled weather | Water by pot weight, feed fortnightly, tie up carrying branches, clear space around fruit | Spider mite in dry heat; branches sagging as fruit gains weight |
| Early autumn | Nights cooling toward 55F (13C) | Pick hands as each colors evenly, reduce feeding, re-check every tie | Fruit still green with the move indoors approaching |
| Late autumn, moving under cover | Night minimum approaching 45F (7C) | Inspect and treat for pests before it goes in, move over a week | Knocking fruit against the doorway during the move |
| Winter under cover | Cold and short days | Water sparingly, no feed, inspect fortnightly, keep above 45F (7C) | Root rot from winter watering; scale spreading in still warm air |
Spring: the move outdoors is the riskiest fortnight of the year
Wait for night minimums to sit reliably above 50F (10C) before the tree goes out, and then take ten to fourteen days over it. Start with a few hours in bright shade, build up the hours, then move into morning sun and only afterwards into full sun. A tree taken straight from a dim greenhouse into open sunlight will drop a third of its leaves and scorch the rest, and any fruit already on it will sunburn on the exposed side.
Spring is also when you deal with the pot. If the tree is due to be stepped up or root pruned, do it now while it is in active growth and before fruit is carrying weight, and give it ten days in shade afterwards. Start feeding as growth begins, at quarter strength at first, building to half strength as the weather warms.
Thin the fruitlets before they size up. Aim for one developing hand per carrying branch, spaced so no two can grow into each other. Removing a fruitlet the size of a pea costs you nothing; removing a fruit in mid summer wastes three months of the tree's work.
Summer: the tree is doing the work and you are protecting the crop
Through the warm months the routine settles into a short fortnightly circuit. Water by lifting the pot rather than by the calendar, feed at half strength every ten to fourteen days, and walk round the tree looking at each developing hand from two angles to check that nothing is within a hand's width of it. Re-check every branch tie, because fruit gains weight faster than you expect and a tie that was right two weeks ago may now be letting the fruit touch the branch below.
Keep pruning light and occasional through summer: take out crossing wood, shorten any long whippy shoot that will not hold weight, and rub off rootstock suckers on sight. Watch for spider mite in dry heat, especially on a tree standing against a hot wall, and hose the undersides of the leaves in the evening if the air is very dry.
Late-set fruit needs a decision. A hand that sets after midsummer will still be green when the tree has to come under cover, and it will finish ripening indoors more slowly. If the tree is already carrying a good crop, remove the late fruitlets rather than trying to carry everything through.
Autumn and winter: get the fruit off and the tree in
Pick each hand as it turns evenly yellow to the base rather than waiting for the whole tree. Reduce feeding as nights cool and stop it once night temperatures fall below about 55F (13C). Before the tree goes under cover, inspect it properly and treat any scale or mealybug you find, because whatever goes in with the tree will multiply in the warm still air over winter.
Move it back indoors when night minimums approach 45F (7C), and again take about a week over the transition rather than doing it in one evening. Plan the physical route in advance: measure the doorway, clear the path, and if fruit is still on the tree, have a second person guide the branches through. More fingers are lost to door frames than to weather.
Through winter the aim is simply to keep the tree alive without letting it rot. Hold the minimum above 45F (7C), give it the brightest position you have, water only when the pot is clearly light, and feed nothing at all. Inspect fortnightly for pests. Expect some leaf drop and do not respond to it by watering more.
A single night at 28F (-2C) kills wood on this species. If your cover is unheated, put a thermometer with a minimum reading beside the tree and check it every morning through the cold months rather than trusting the forecast.
The dates worth writing down
Six dates a year turn this generic calendar into one that fits your own garden. Record the date the tree moved outdoors and the date it came back under cover, the date of each flowering flush, the date each hand set and the date you picked it, the date you last fed, and the lowest temperature your winter cover actually reached.
By the second season those notes tell you real things. The gap between flowering and picking gives you your own ripening interval, so you know in midsummer whether a new fruitlet is worth carrying. The two move dates, compared against the leaf drop that followed, tell you whether you moved the tree too fast. And the minimum temperature under cover tells you whether you got away with something last winter or whether you need heat this time.