Depends on if you are trying to cover the soil to keep it moist longer in spring or keep it warm longer in fall. In spring soils are cold and wet, mulching then will tend to make them slower to warm up and dry out. Since you say you are in Zone 9 maybe you are in a hot area where covering the soil in spring could be seen as beneficial.

Fertilizing of cold hardy plants can be done in spring or fall.

Hi bboy, around March 1st day time temps will be in the 80-90 deg F here. We are in the 60-65 deg F range now and night time temps are getting down to 40 deg. Even with the current cool temps most of my trees are starting to grow buds and leaves. The typical answer in books on Arizona gardening say not fertilize until the end of February to avoid any possible chance of a frost/hard freeze damaging the new growth.

I have lived here for 8 years now and my bet is that our winter is nearly over and I am not worried about the trees being damaged. As I said the trees are already breaking dormancy and my question is; is there any reason not to fertilize them now and is the way I am planning on doing it the right way or wrong way or is there a better way?

I donÂt want to start fertilizing too late or the summer heat will cause a lot of the fruit to drop. Last summer we had 65 strait days of temps 110 deg F or higher and very few of those nights got below 100 deg F. For four months I donÂt think we had a day under 100 deg F last year.

I want lots of fruit on my trees this year and I have never done this before so I am looking for all the advice I can get.

Right amount of fertilizer at right time shouldn't be causing side effects like frost damage or fruit drop. If you aren't using Arizona Cooperative Extension web site look for that and check what they say about plants you are growing, extension sites are usually heavy on commercial fruiting crops.

Hi bboy, They give a canned answer of March 1st as per the reasons I mentioned above. Still my trees are showing signs of coming out of dormancy already. I was hoping some one on a site of this size could offer a more informed answer than the canned information found at the ooperative Extension.

You can apply the compost right now, but make sure that manure "compost" is well rotted or you can conceivably burn your trees. What you really need to do is take a leaf analysis at the first opportunity. Otherwise you are just applying general fertilizer and have no idea if and what you need, or what you are applying. A soil analysis can be worthless, go for the leaf analysis or fruitlet analysis if you can find a place that will do fruitlet analysis for you. look in the phone book or ask extension. I really like compost, but I never use manure, only compost from plant sources. sources include lawn clippings, leaves, etc.
It is, however, very likely that the real reason for your trees failing to produce is that they are simply too young. You didn't say what rootstock they are grafted upon or what variety. By applying nitrogen (less than well rotted manure) you will only produce terminal growth. This vegetative state is counter productive to a fruiting state. What you certainly do not want to do is apply fertilizer late enough so as to keep your trees growing vigorously when they are at the same time trying to shut down in the fall. You will be encouraging the sap to stay up in the tree. A good hard early freeze and your fine wood will be damaged.
You can overnight, or two day, samples to these folks:

http://www.cascadeanalytical.com/agriculture_svcs/agricult.htm#mineral

Thank you geraldo_linux, All of the trees were selected for there very low chill requirements. In two years the only fruit I ever saw was when I put some fertilizer in the posts last September. My local Nursery has informed me that I should fertilize and compost here every March 1st and July 1st for best results. I thought all of the soil in such large posts would provide all they needed but it turns out they need a bit more than the soil alone can provide for them to produce fruit.

I will have fruit this year without question. I guess I am just a little over eager after waiting so long only to fertilize to late last year to reap the fruits of my labor.