5 REASONS WHY Your Fruit Tree is not Producing Fruit
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2020
- 5 More Reasons WHY Your Fruit Tree is not Producing Fruit.
A follow up of my recent video: '4 Reasons Why Your Fruit Tree is not Producing Fruit'.
With these 9 reasons in total you should find your answer to 'Why is my fruit tree not producing fruit?'.
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Thanks Stefan, you DO have a down-to-earth way of teaching that even I can understand. Helps to take the STRESS out of GUESS! God Bless you and yours!
Lol, Why Your Fruit Tree is not Producing Fruit - It's winter... that was a good one
Keep making content! I love it!
New video every Friday 11:45 Eastern time.
You too keep the videos coming. I have a way to go to catch up to you John. Good job.
Yes my property (1 acre) varies a lot with temps. It can be 25 in my front yard and 18 in my garden. Trying to make a warmer micro climate in my food forest so my blooms stop freezing! And then yes we get some warm weeks and everything starts to bloom and then bammmm, a late frost😩
If you are not sure about pollination of fruit trees buy only self pollinating varieties. The way to go is to graft different varieties together so you buy two trees at a time the labels tell you the pollination group and cultivar if you can graft one tree you can graft them all.
Could you talk a bit more about rootstocks and scions and how it affects your production of fruit? I am rather in the dark as to how best to optimize this in my garden..
If it’s a garden I would stick to dwarf or at most semi dwarf. Look up the tree playlist I talk a bit about rootstock
Great video. I live in SE Georgia and grow Chickasaw (Prunus angustifolia) cultivars and an Asian X Chickasaw cultivar called Robusto. I have found that these are all best pollinized by bringing flowers of wild Chickasaw plums into the orchard at bloom time and setting them out in five gallon buckets of water. The cultivars are not particularly good at pollinizing each other but wild Chickasaw always works. The rub is that the wild Chickasaws in my orchard often bloom too early to do me any good. But usually I can drive around the county and find populations of wild plums growing along the roadside and put them in my orchard, and this works great. Also I have a very large Mariana plum tree, yes the rootstock, which makes delicious plums in its own right. But it's not cross fertile at all with any of my other plums. The P caricifera parent to Mariana is too susceptible to stem canker to take my hot and humid climate. The munson plum (P. monsonia) parent to Mariana blooms way too late to do me any good. But we have a very bitter wild plum that's a close relative to the Munson Plum parent of Mariana interchangeably called hog plum or flatwoods plum, (Prunus umbelatta) that works great. As with the wild Chickasaw plums, I sit branches of blooming flatwoods plum under the Mariana tree in five gallon buckets at bloom time.
And yes, when your climate is warm plums of the exact same species can miss each other by weeks depending on the chill requirement of the cultivar. In addition two trees that bloom together one year often don't the next. Thankfully the wild ones have a similar elongated bloom season, so I can usually gather branches of a wild tree from somewhere in the county to use for pollenizing each of my cultivars.
Another thing I tried that did not quite work was planting wild plums in my orchard that were from a wild population that bloomed with the plums in my orchard most years. The problem that arose is that the suckers from those trees ended up blooming too early when they matured. There was something about the micro-climate where the original population is that makes it a bit later than clones from those same trees in my orchard.
Marcus that's what I suspected, you got it. Microclimate. Take a real good look at the wild ones that bloom at the same time as your cultivars. I suspect the slope aspect (if you have one) is not the same as your orchard. Second when you say the roadside, look at where those wild plums are growing in relation to nearby trees. If they are on the north side (in the shade) of the trees they will easily be blooming one week later than the ones you planted in your orchard. Measure soil temperatures at blooming time since soil temps are more related to bloom time than immediate air temps. My guess is the wild ones blooming at the right time are in a cooler soil so they are later. You can make yours bloom later by 1- leaving the grass tall in the fall around the trees, 2- adding branches around your trees to delay soil warmup (if you add mouse guards) you can do that now, 3- adding straw in the fall to delay soil warmup in the spring (you can do it now). I would say do a few tests with and without a treatment you will quickly see in the spring if it's worth pursuing for all the trees.
Several strategies possible but observe and measure first.
@@StefanSobkowiak thanks for the quick response. I think the biggest difference is that my little home orchard is a half acre lot in Downtown Statesboro, GA where as the wild plums are out in the county. I think all the heat from the asphalt and buildings in Downtown make the soils in my yard a degree or two warmer than the soils out in the county. Another possible factor is the in the wild Chickasaw plum tens to take advantage of disturbed sandy soils. My soil is unusually dark and rich for this part of Georgia or any part of Georgia for that matter. Generally Chickasaw plums bloom earlier than Asian types and the wild ones also seem to bloom a little earlier than the cultivars. Just a side note some phytohistory of Chickasaw plums. I'm involved in a project where I'm working to recover forgotten regional varieties of Chickasaw cultivars. These cultivars are actually fabulous plums, much, much better than P. americana or P. nigra. However, they are too soft and have to short of shelf life for most commercial uses. The cultivars were the products of a thousand years of selective breeding by South Eastern Native peoples. In fact the species is not native here at are by were introduced in their improved cultivar form by native peoples. When settlers first came to Georgia they did not find any wild Chickasaw plums, only the cultivars growing in plantings near Native American villages. The wild ones have reverted back from the cultivars. To my knowledge on three cultivars are still commercially available. In the 1800 there were over 300 named varieties. Thomas Jefferson and 45 of those varieties in his orchard at Monticello. I have managed managed to find 7 additional strains that are different from the ones that are commercially available. The trees grow much larger than wild Chickasaw plums, about 25 ft tall as opposed to about 8 ft tall max, and the plums are golf ball size as opposed to the size of a nickle. The jury is out on how cross fertile the cultivars are with one another. The flowers only last about three days and they are really bad about missing each other at bloom time. Going by how the buds look now, the last one to bloom last year looks like it will be the first one to bloom this year. Chickasaw plums are absolutely the best plums for home growers around here to grow because they are so disease resistant, but they can be a bit of a pill when it comes to pollination on account of having such a short window for the flowers being pollen receptive. I haven't had a chance to taste all the varieties yet, but the better ones tend to taste like a combination of Hawaiian Punch and peach juice.
Amazing. The city vs rural conditions explains all. I suspect when there were even just 25 cultivars they pollinated well. Loss of diversity is an increasing problem all over.
I bet you you monsieur Stefan doesn't have any saying at dinner table re any experiences subjects... Which is good for us when he went out the farthest corner of his orchards to share his flowering buds experiences in the coldest day in Canada bzzz.. Hi hi keep your sock dry and warm my good fellow human buds🖖🌺
Local cultivars are important be use they should be adapted to the light hours, chilling hours, right time of year to bloom without frost ...
Or perhaps be 10 years ahead of climate change and plant varieties of close by regions towards which your local climate is moving
My 2 apple tree are well fertilized, well sunned, well pruned... 1 is a great producer, it flowers beautifully, then out comes the fruit in august-September... the otherone, NOTHING! I am confused...
I have two plum trees and two pear trees but only one of each have blossomed they are approximately 10 ft apart - i am confused. I think one of the pear trees is too young but the plum tree I have no idea. If you could help i would appreciate it. Thank you
Yes probably too young. Different cultivars (or varieties) begin to flower at different ages.
Hi Stephan, I bought a 3 in one plum tree, with blue, red and yellow plums. It's three years old and 6 feet tall. It flowers but have not fruited so far. I might have a case of different cultivars...why would they sell them like that?
They certainly are different cultivars but should be compatible otherwise someone should report the nursery as selling trees that won’t fruit. You say it flowers but at least two of the cultivars should flower to get fruit, preferably all three. Give the tree a chance for all three to flower before concluding that they won’t fruit.
@@StefanSobkowiak thanks for your reply. I will be patient for sure. But when you were mentioning the European, Japanese and American cultivars I am like...oh no I hope they are compatible with each other. I believe I have the names of them and will do some research. Fingers crossed.
@Noname Atall thank you! I bought that because I don’t have too much garden space, instead of buying two or three trees. I already have bee hotels😊
Our chilling hours a getting fewer and fewer. Kentucky
Yup
Usually my trees produce fruit but they sometimes drop their fruit. It's probably because they are so young. They are all less than 8 ft. tall (babies). No, I don't fertilize them during flowering and fruit production time. I fertilize after all the fruit has been produced. Any other reasons trees can drop fruit?
Good question. It is normal for fruit to drop in summer (it’s called June drop). Otherwise squirrels sometimes drop them, water stress can do it, insect damage often causes the fruit to fall.
How about apricots? I've got a Scout and a Morden 604 apricot. they're about 20 feet apart but I've noticed that my Scout blooms about 3 weeks before the other. If it's raining solid for 3 days, should I pollinate the 'king' flowers myself? Will that help or not? Also, I've a huge, and I mean, HUGE, ant hill at the bottom of the 604. Could this be weakening the production? I've noticed the tree producing more leaves than blooms, especially towards the tips of the branches. It doesn't occur with the Scout. And....is there a life expectancy in fruit trees? I know apple trees don't - if pruned correctly. But apricots?
Leaves can be the juvenile phase rather than mature phase. Ants add a good dose of fertility and aeration. I would leave them. Apricot are fairly short lived 20 years.
@@StefanSobkowiak Merci, thank you. I've about 20 flowers just starting today on the 604. There is finally warmth and sunshine, so the pollinators are hard at word on both trees. Thank heavens!
I get apple flowers, pedal fall, then the apple forms. Maybe near dime size then the stem turns yellow and the majority of fruits fall off, some years all apples fall.I have 20+ varieties, 2 bee hives. Spray some years, not sprayed the past 2 years and made no difference. Any thoughts why I lose most apples.? Live in central ohio
It's a form of thinning the apples thin themselves when stressed. Fruit load is a stress. Should keep 1 apple per cluster. If all fall could be frost, too much shade, lack of sun, water stress, lack of some vital element, too much water, high water table, lack of mulch,... You see there are a couple of possible reasons.
@@StefanSobkowiak hmmm, thank you. We do have a high water table here
My plumb tree is dropping its fruit. Plenty of plumbs about 1 1\2 “ long and are falling off the tree. Why? What can I do to fix this problem?
June drop is normal, the ones in over abundance and the ones that were hit by insects will fall at this time.
I can add one more big reason why no fruit. If your fruit trees are in your yard and you spread fall fertilizer on your lawn, the fertilizer may prevent fruit buds from forming and they turn into growth buds instead if your trees are near your grass and absorb some of the fertilizer. The nitrogen in the fertilizer prevents fruit buds from forming properly. Spring fertilizer is OK and helps the grass and the fruit trees when applied in early spring. When I fertilize in the fall I now stay at least 15 feet away from any of my fruit trees.
You can’t eat grass, i recommend getting fruit shrubs and have a super fruiting spot. Canadian Permaculture Legacy channels shows his setup
I live in New Jersey and I have a German Seckel pear tree, that I think is about 17-19 years old and around 25 feet tall. It was producing pears just fine up until two years ago. I used to get several grocery bags full, every year. But for the past two years I haven't gotten any and I don't know why. It's still blossoming like normal every year. But half of it looks dead. Should I just cut off the dead part? Could simply doing that, solve the problem? I'm not sure, but I think it may have produced a small amount of baby pears the year before last, but maybe birds or squirrels got them before they reached maturity? Or does it sound like it has some kind of disease? I'm not sure, because even if it did produce a small amount of baby fruits, it wasn't a very noticeable amount, anyway. What can I do to get this tree going again? Is it possible that maybe whatever other pear tree in the area that may have been pollinating it, may have been removed and that's the problem? I only had one pear tree, all this time and I was unaware that it takes two, to pollinate, so it must have been getting pollinated by another one in someone else's yard. Or could it be that the beehives in my yard, no longer exist, because the bees swarmed for some unknown reason?
Sounds like two possible reasons. Yes a neighborhood pear that was pollinating it may have been removed and your tree may have fireblight. Check my fireblight video to see if that’s what yours has. If so cut off the dying part.
@@StefanSobkowiak If I cut off the dead part, could that really be the only thing that I have to do, to get the pears growing again? If so, what's the best time of year to do it?
Cut it off while still dormant.
@@StefanSobkowiak It's hard to tell where the dead part is, when it's dormant, though. I'll try my best. Does a little bit of fire blight alone, cause the pears to not grow, or do you think it's more likely that they're not growing for some other, unrelated reason? Keep in mind that, only half the tree looks dead and the other half looked fine and blossomed like normal. I don't think the infection spread down to the point where I think it will kill the whole tree. If I am able to successfully cut off the infected branches, what do you suggest for protecting it from birds and squirrels, so I can be sure that if it doesn't get pears again, that animals couldn't have been the reason?
Plant more different pear trees to be sure you can get some or net it diligently.
What about the native American Plum that is self pollinating?
Yes some are self pollinating.
you did not mention another category of reasons which is pruning mistakes. radical pruning, pruning shoot tips that contain fruiting buds. cane/spur pruning of grapes. I did not get any flowering on my pomegranate because of tipping all shoots in order to get a nice looking tree.also too much fertilizer causing the tree to go for vegetative growth with shoots going to the sky rather than horizontal positioning which helps flower bud production in the shoot
So right how many is that10, 11?
Can you just use fertilizer to force a tree to bare fruit?
If you force it it can go vegetative, crazy with branches. It has to have mature branches (with fruit buds) to fruit. Watch my recent 2 videos on (4 and 5 more reasons your fruit tree is not producing fruit).
My trees(plum, apple, pear) dont flower after 5 years. Ive checked my chill hours and they have met the requirements. Idk what the issue is
It happens if the tree can’t put up enough root reserves or flower bud reserves. Make sure your trees are in full sun. Not enough direct sun 8hours minimum will not let it put up enough reserves. Mulch around the tree also helps tremendously.
@@StefanSobkowiak thank you so much!
So, what you are saying in brief is to pick trees from one or two colder zones.
Depends where you are. Perhaps colder or warmer.
@@StefanSobkowiak On the books we are listed as Zone 5a but... last 2 years no apples and 1 pear on a total of 6 Trees.
I'm thinking we might be in a microclimate taking us down to 4a or it may just be fluctuating too muck with the strange weather patterns.
Gave the Pears a good pruning the other day, need to do the Apples.
Considering grafting in different varieties within each tree just in case we are having problems with bees.
Having different varieties blooming close together might at least offer some help and since I'm a home orchard... I do not care how many varieties are in one tree.
well i guess i shouldn't have cut down that crabapple tree o well too late now
1º Put a block of ice on the ground
2º Put a plastic bag with hols around crown
4º Put Cultivars auto-fertile :) I have no idea if they exist for your weather and plants you have
You are welcome :)
If my text make me sound that I know what I'm talking about, well I don't. I'm giving advise that other people gave to me
If I was circumvent mother nature, I use dry ice, the gas in dry ice stimulate this year and more change of blooming next year
SO many ways not to have fruit , and only one way to have fruit. Raising fruit trees is too hard for the average home gardener, the prunning , the soil , the spraying for pests and deseaes, much too diffacult.
Not all are difficult. Fig trees and orange trees are the easiest. They don't need much and almost always give fruit
Step 1 too little chill...nope
Step 2. too much chill ...nope..well...maybe
Step 3. Location...ok...not.a.factor.
Step 4. Over lapping flowering...maybe..ill have to check but dont think so.
Type of plmcots...maybe..
that is way too small of a bite out of that doughnut who takes that small of a bite?
This is what I call a flogging a dead horse video. Nearly 15 minutes to say what could be said in a minute or put in a list that I could read in 10 seconds, and totally obvious observations. Yeah, if all your flowers freeze off in Spring, you don't get any fruit.
I’m sorry to hear that Robert. I intended to provide some context so that each reason would be more memorable. Not everyone has a photographic memory like you so that one glance at a list will be remembered forever. That must be nice, I can only wish I was as blessed as you. On the other hand you will have a lot more to answer for since “to whom much has been given much shall be expected “.
@@StefanSobkowiak... Did you just quote hamlet... Came back from spring break... Hamlet moan... Hi hi