Where’s the beef. . .I mean fruit?
I’ve been looking into some different kind of fruit trees lately, and decided to tackle a very common question. “Why isn’t my fruit tree bearing fruit?” If you are one of the many finding yourself asking this question, then you might be slightly relieved to know that there are only three main causes to this predicament, age and stress. What you won’t be relieved to hear is that these three main causes come fully loaded! The lesser of the three is age. Most fruit bearing trees take at least 3-5 years to start bearing their first set of fruit. This depends very much on the type of tree, but if you have just planted your tree with in that range, chances are it is just not old enough. In contrast, older trees that have had heavy fruit sets for the past few seasons have been known to take a “rest” for a season. However, just because a tree is old, does not mean it will stop bearing fruit. There is no such thing as a tree growing too old to produce a crop.
If your tree is more than 5 years old, or has not produced a set in several seasons, then it could be due to stress. I use stress as a good term here. Most fruit trees actually need some form of stress in order to flower and bear fruit. This usually comes in the form of those three to five months of sheer boredom for gardeners of all types, also known as winter. If you have had a particularly mild winter, it may not have gotten cold enough to cause enough stress to induce flowering. If this is the case, a good pruning usually does wonders to help stem the effects of several mild winters. (Incidently you should always give your tree an annual moderate pruning.) It is useful to keep this fact in mind when caring for your fruit tree. It is actually possible to go over board. Too much fertilization, or too much water can cause lots new leaves and branches, but very few buds. This is because there is not enough stress to it’s resources to produce a crop.
Is your fruit tree producing an over abundance? Don’t be excited. This is actually a sign that there is too much stress on the tree’s resources. You can stem this by removing excess fruit when they are still very small. Shortly after the flowers have gone and begun forming fruit buds, remove all but one or two fruits from each spur. This will also keep your tree from having to take a rest every other season because of over bearing.
The third and probably most costly problem would be disease and pests. If this is the case, do some research in your area. See if there are any diseases affecting other trees. Tree diseases can spread from tree to tree, on the wind or in water, and through bugs. If it is a pest problem, then again, do some research, ask some other local growers or hit the net. Find out what type of pest, anything from bugs to dear, and take the necessary precautions.
If you catch the problem early enough in the season you can sometimes treat a non-bearing tree and have it bloom late. Other wise you will probably have to wait at least one season after addressing the issue. Here is a link you can go to if you want some really simple instructions on pruning a tree. These can be used for most type of trees, though check before you go cutting away. Some trees may need more specific care.
sources for this article: Garden Web, About.com
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POSTED IN: How to Grow Stuff, Uncategorized
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The Best of Mother Earth’s Garden 2007 - Part 1
Dec 27, 2007 at 1:07 pm
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