[BumbleJo]

Hi folks, I have several young fruit trees and I know that now is the time to apply the grease bands but they say to put them 18 inches from the base and my trees don't have that much trunk on them below the lowest branches  yet...do I just put them on anyway?  Thanks.

[Lardman]

18" is very low to have fruiting branches  Are you training them as step-overs or espaliers?  The bands just stop things crawling up the trunk, are the trees fruiting yet ? It may not be worth doing at the moment.

[BumbleJo]

They have fruited for the first time this year Lardman, not trained but still quite small, dwarf-ish varieties. When I looked today there is not much less than 18inches of bare trunk.  Think I'll just stick em on anyway.  Thanks.