There is a particular sort of quiet that settles over a UK orchard in late October. The wasps have gone, the grass has stopped growing, and the trees are down to their last few fruits. It is tempting to hang up your tools until spring, but the weeks between leaf fall and the first hard frost are the most useful of the whole year. What you do now decides how much fruit you will be picking next September.

Why Autumn Work Pays Off Twice

Most of the problems that spoil an orchard — scab, canker, winter moth, rotten fruit — carry over from one season to the next in fallen leaves, mummified fruit and cracks in the bark. Break that cycle in autumn and you start the following spring with a clean slate. The work is also easier now: the canopy is thinner, the ground is softer than midwinter, and you can see the shape of every tree without a curtain of leaves in the way.

Aim to finish the bulk of it before the end of November, while the soil is still workable and daytime temperatures are high enough for you to enjoy being outside.

Clear Fallen Leaves and Tidy the Ground

Rake up fallen leaves beneath apples, pears, cherries and plums and get them off the ground rather than leaving them to rot into the grass. Apple scab and pear scab spores overwinter in those leaves, and a thick layer around the trunk is also a welcome mat for slugs and voles.

• Collect weekly through leaf fall rather than waiting for one big tidy-up in December, when the leaves will be wet and matted.
• Do not add diseased leaves to the compost heap unless you are confident it reaches a proper heat. Bag them for the council green waste or burn them.
• Pick up mummified fruit still hanging in the branches — brown, shrivelled and often overlooked. These are brown rot factories.
• Clear a ring of bare soil roughly 60–90cm around each trunk, removing grass and weeds so they cannot compete with the tree or shelter pests.
• Clean your tools with a garden disinfectant between trees, especially after cutting out canker.

Healthy leaves can go into a leaf bin to make leafmould. It takes a year or two, but it is superb stuff for mulching and for potting mixes.

Harvest What Remains and Store It Well

Late varieties such as Bramley, Ashmead's Kernel and Egremont Russet are usually ready from mid-October onwards. Test by cupping the fruit and giving it a gentle twist — if the stalk parts cleanly from the spur, it is ready. If you have to tug, give it another week. Brown pips and a slight softening around the stem end are good signs too.

Handle fruit as though it were eggs. Any bruise becomes a rot, and one rotten apple really will spoil the box. Sort as you pick:

• Perfect fruit goes into storage, ideally in single layers on slatted trays or wrapped loosely in newspaper, in a cool, dark, frost-free place at around 2–4°C with good airflow.
• Bruised or damaged fruit heads straight for the kitchen — pies, chutney, juice or cider.
• Pears are best picked slightly underripe and ripened indoors at room temperature, as they tend to go floury if left on the tree.
• Check stored fruit fortnightly and remove anything showing brown patches or soft spots.

Quinces, medlars and late plums should be gathered before the first heavy gales strip the tree for you.

Protect Trunks Against Pests and Weather

Young trees are vulnerable to rabbits, voles, deer and strimmers, and a single ring-barked trunk is the end of the tree. Fit spiral or mesh guards from ground level up to around 60cm, checking that they are not rubbing the bark. Where deer are a problem, you will need a taller guard or a fenced cage.

If you have had trouble with winter moth caterpillars shredding the leaves in spring, fit grease bands around the trunks of apple and pear trees in late October. The wingless females climb the trunk to lay eggs, and the band stops them. Reapply the grease in December if it becomes crusty.

Autumn is also the moment to cut out canker — sunken, cracked, dead-looking patches of bark, often around old pruning wounds. Cut back to clean, healthy wood, wipe the blade between cuts and dispose of the prunings away from the orchard. Do not paint the wound with anything; trees seal themselves best when left alone.

Mulch, Feed and Prune Carefully

Once the ground is clear, spread a 5–8cm layer of well-rotted manure or garden compost over the root zone, keeping it a hand's width clear of the trunk so the bark stays dry. Worms will work it in over winter. If you garden on heavy clay, fork over the surface lightly first — never dig deeply, as fruit tree roots are shallow and easily damaged.

Sow a green manure such as field beans or grazing rye on bare ground between rows if you are establishing a new orchard; it protects the soil structure and can be cut and left as mulch in spring.

Be careful with autumn pruning. Leave plums, cherries, apricots and peaches completely alone until midsummer — pruning them in damp autumn weather invites silver leaf infection through the wounds. Apples and pears can have dead, crossing or damaged branches removed now, but save the real structural pruning for a dry, frost-free day in winter.

Plant Bare-Root Trees and Do a Final Walk-Round

November to early March is bare-root planting season, and trees planted now settle in far better than potted ones put in during summer. Choose a day when the soil is not frozen or waterlogged, dig a hole wide enough to spread the roots comfortably, and plant at the same depth the tree was growing in the nursery — look for the soil mark on the trunk. Firm gently, water well, stake for the first three years, and mulch.

Spacing matters: allow 3–4m between bush apples on dwarfing rootstocks, and 4–5m for vigorous cookers, pears and plums. Finally, walk the orchard with a notebook. Note which varieties cropped well, which were disappointing, and where you have gaps. Autumn is the best time to plan a new tree — and by next year you will be glad you did.