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How to Use Fruit Tree Fertilizer Spikes
How to Use Fruit Tree Fertilizer Spikes. Fruit tree fertilizer spikes are tightly packed cylinders of fertilizer that you drive into the ground around the base of a fruit tree to fertilize it all season long. They deliver fertilizer right to the roots of the tree, where trees need it most. (Ref 1) Unlike normal fertilizer, you don't have to measure...
Fruit tree fertilizer spikes are tightly packed cylinders of fertilizer that you drive into the ground around the base of a fruit tree to fertilize it all season long. They deliver fertilizer right to the roots of the tree, where trees need it most. (Ref 1) Unlike normal fertilizer, you don't have to measure the spike's weight, but knowing how many to apply around a tree is helpful, to say the least.
Things You'll Need
Hose
Hammer
Ensure you use fertilizer spikes meant for your kind of fruit tree. Citrus fruit fertilizer spikes will have different amounts of fertilizer than stone fruit fertilizer spikes. Having the proper types of fertilizer for the kind of trees you grow will help the trees produce better.
Select how many spikes you need for each tree. According to Jean-Marie Lespinasse and Evelyne Leterme, authors of "Growing Fruit Trees: Novel Concepts and Practices for Successful Care and Management," a one- to two-year-old tree needs three spikes while a four- to five-year-old tree needs four to five spikes. Once the tree is six or older, give it six spikes in the spring.
Use the spikes on the tree when it starts showing signs of life in the springtime. Lespinasse and Leterme suggest watering the ground around the base of the tree to a diameter of about 6 to 8 feet for 15 to 20 minutes.
Push the spikes into the ground around the tree 3 feet from the trunk in a circle. Hammer them into the ground and cover them with 1 inch of soil.
Tips & Warnings
Follow the manufacturer's directions for your fertilizer spikes as they may vary from brand to brand.
