Benefits of Adding Nutrients Post Harvest

So we have always followed a very simple post harvest program prior to working with AEA where we just put on two fall applications of urea and then waited until the next spring. But after starting to work with AEA what I learned as a grower is that we have a substantial period of the year after harvest until leaf drop to pump up the buds that are going to be growing next year's cherries. So I view this as a very important time of the season to have a substantial influence upon next season's crop and so we were very open to the idea of increasing our post harvest nutrient program once we began working with aea. What we've noticed over the last five years of following a more intensive post harvest program than just urea which we've been using is that we really have substantially increased the size of our spur leaves in the spring but in my opinion our fruit are much larger and we have more of them and I think that the post harvest program is integral to that.