composting this late in the growing season

Would putting my compost around my fruit trees, this late in the season, be detrimental?  

I was reading a discussion (another forum) where someone indicated they fertilized too much and late in the season and it caused explosive growth that did not hardened off before winter.  They indicated this caused the new growth to die back in winter.

I want to continue to apply a lot of compost around my fruit trees but would like some thoughts from this group.  Should I hold off until next spring or is compost so slow a fertilizer that it would not cause a problem even if used this late?

Thanks

I don't think there is ever a bad time for compost. As you said, it releases nutrient much more slowly than bagged fertilizer. It also feeds the little guys living in the soil, and I figure they need to eat all year.

It's about to be July, so most of my fruit trees are setting and growing fruit. I've heard that pruning at this time of year is better than in Feb because the plant puts its energy into producing that fruit rather than growing more water spouts but that most people don't do this because they're too busy doing other things in July and August to spend time pruning.
If that advice about pruning is accurate, I'd suggest that compost would fit the same bill.

That said, it also depends on the quality of the soil and the age of the tree. If they're young trees in poor soil, compost would feed the micro-biome as suggested by Trace. Alternatively you could save the compost and spend the time working on plans for a guild to support the fruit trees. Last spring I planted walking onions, flowers and comfrey around a prune plum tree and the comfrey has already been chopped and dropped once and is looking like I should do so again. I added compost at the time I did the new planting to help keep the "weeds" down while the plants got established. The nitrogen fixer that had been with the tree succumbed to deer pressure over the winter, and I didn't have a different N fixer to try, so that parts still under consideration. In the short term, being able to chop and drop the comfrey will hopefully do the job.

Hi Dennis,

Compost is a low and slow fertalizer, that it will encourage some growth; however, your concerns of new growth not hardening off, depends alot on the climate you live in, and the health of the tree before fertilizing. Mellow climates with slow transitions into winter, provide adequate time for a healthy tree to transition to winter. Climates that can quickly and drastically change, or unusual cold snaps coming early can be the problem. If a tree is nutrient deficient, then late in the season its suddenly given lots of fertalizer, depending on its genetics, it may risk late season growth, rather then let those nutrients leach away.

The type of tree, your climate, unusual weather, the trees unique genetics, the trees health, and many other factors, can play into the tree properly hardening of new growth. Compost at any stage shouldn't be an issue, but for trees prone to the concern, hold off late summer early fall compost applications till after leaf drop. We're in early summer in the norther hemisphere, so compost away!

Compost makes two contributions to soil health.

First, as listed above, the nutrients in the compost (N, K, P, and others) are good for the growing tree.  For the sake of simplicity, this is "dead stuff" that the living plant needs to grow strong and healthy.

But more importantly, second, the microbial life in the compost can jump-start soil that has a deficient microbial herd working in concert with the tree roots.  Again, simplistically, this is the "living stuff" that makes healthy soil—bacteria, fungi and microbial biota.  

Both the nutrients and the microbes are welcomed by the tree any time.  

I am glad I read all the responses, because I can't really add anything the others have covered the subject very well.

Redhawk