- You will achieve ultimate results from your fruit tree food if it is used in early March or right before budding and blooming begin. If your fruit trees are really suffering during the growing season, use fertilizer again in midsummer. Do not use tree food late in the season; that could cause excessive late growth, which may damage the tree.
- Each type of fruit tree is different but, when needed, an organic fertilizer should be safe for most types. Every tree needs nitrogen as a nutrient. You probably have an abundance of it at your fingertips: grass clippings. But throwing the grass around the base of your tree won't help you. You need to incorporate it into compost. Making homemade fruit tree food with compost is about the best nutrition your trees can get.
Line the bottom of a compost bin with 3 inches of grass clippings. Add a 3-inch layer of dead leaves, rotted vegetable peels and parts. Eggshells, old coffee grounds or tea bags can be added. Mix your layers together and then start the process over again -- starting with the grass trimming -- repeat the process until you fill your compost bin. Allow this fertilizer to ferment over the winter before you feed your fruit trees in the early spring. Turning your mixture once a week or two weeks is fine.
Add 1 to 2 lbs. of animal manure to this mixture to increase nutritive value. Never use fresh manure on your fruit trees, says the University of Arizona's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Make sure the manure is composted or rotted before using. Make as much tree food as needed for the amount and size of your trees. - For young small trees, use two shovelfuls of the homemade fruit tree food 6 inches away from the base. Older, more established trees use three to four shovelfuls. Scatter and spread to the tips of the longest branch. Mix the food with mulch or lightly rake into the ground and water well.
- This homemade tree food is nitrogen-rich. If you are having trouble with your trees, purchase a soil test kit available at almost any garden center. Research the ideal soil composition for your tree. Overfeeding fruit trees is not recommended -- it may cause foliage growth, but fruit production can suffer.