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Prune minimally , especially with young trees , as excessive pruning may delay or reduce fruiting and create too much leafy growth . Oedema , often spelled ' edema ' , is a physiological disorder that develops when a plant absorbs water faster than it can be lost normally from leaf surfaces . Avoid pulling or yanking the fruit ; such an action may well remove the small woody " spur " to which the stem of the fruit is attached , taking with it next year 's flower buds . Pear branches in particular have a tendency to grow in a more vertical fashion than is optimal for early fruit production , although apple branches can also grow too vertically . If growth is normal , however , apply a low-phosphorous fertilizer , such as a lawn fertilizer containing no herbicide , at the rate of 1 ounce of actual nitrogen per year of tree age , not to exceed 16 ounces . Aim for one fruit per cluster , or for truly optimal fruit quality , about eight inches between fruits on any branch . Frozen apples release more juice than fresh ones , and you must compensate for the extra liquid . Grafting is useful however , for more than reproduction of an original cultivar . The inner leaves are yellow and stunted , while outer leaves turn rusty red to reddish purple . If you discover iris borer damage early in the season , you can crush the insect while it is inside the leaf or remove the infested leaf . Keep four to six of the vigorous older stems and one to two strong new shoots per mature bush . So the phlox or monarda foliage covered with powdery mildew should be cut back to ground level and moved off site once the foliage has died . The branches of non-bearing young apple trees will normally grow 12 to 18 inches per year ( 15 to 20 inches for pears ) , while the branches of bearing apple trees will grow 8 to 12 ( 8 to 15 for pears ) inches in a season . More people enjoy eating blueberries than growing them , yet blueberries are exceptionally handsome bushes worthy of planting in the home landscape . During the first three years of growth , allow four or five canes to develop per year , removing only weak or damaged wood . Dwarf trees are likely to produce 2 to 3 bushels per tree . For this reason , carefully clean soil off your tools and even your shoes . However , while currants and gooseberries are , as a rule , well adapted for the Upper Midwest , very few cultivars have been fully evaluated in outdoor trials by researchers in Minnesota . While no plants are immune , fleshy-leaved plants are more likely to suffer from oedema than those with thin-leaves . Insects and diseases are not likely to cause problems with most plantings .