I bought some dwarf fruit trees last year which were meant to be 3 year olds and said to give fruit from the first year of planting.
I included a feed in the soil when planting and have kept them well watered during the growing period.
Last year I had just leaves, this year I had plenty of flowers on the apple and pear trees but have noticed that instead of producing fruit buds the flower stems are just dropping. Advise please. I am new to fruit tree tending.
Jan
Hi Jan.
When you say the flower stems are dropping ...do you mean the whole of the flower parts or just the petals.?
If it is the whole of the cluster parts then there are a couple of things that could have happened.
Firstly...and most likely...this year we have had a terrible spring period.
just as the flowers were openening we got frost...wet and cold windy weather. That was just the thing for a lousy fruit set.
Those blossoms that did not get killed by the frost were very poorly pollinated as nothing was flying in that weather.
We just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that a few of the fruits have survived I'm afraid.
Nothing you have done Jan....just a terrible seasons start.
When you say the flower stems are dropping ...do you mean the whole of the flower parts or just the petals.?
If it is the whole of the cluster parts then there are a couple of things that could have happened.
Firstly...and most likely...this year we have had a terrible spring period.
just as the flowers were openening we got frost...wet and cold windy weather. That was just the thing for a lousy fruit set.
Those blossoms that did not get killed by the frost were very poorly pollinated as nothing was flying in that weather.
We just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope that a few of the fruits have survived I'm afraid.
Nothing you have done Jan....just a terrible seasons start.
Thanks for your comments.
I had lovely blooms on both apple and pear which appeared to be behaving normally so I expected to see some fruit buds developing after the petals dropped, but the whole of the flower stem drops off, I still have a few stems on the apple but none at all on the pear.
They had looked really healthy and I was looking forward to a bumper crop like the advert said. Oh well, maybe next year. Jan
I had lovely blooms on both apple and pear which appeared to be behaving normally so I expected to see some fruit buds developing after the petals dropped, but the whole of the flower stem drops off, I still have a few stems on the apple but none at all on the pear.
They had looked really healthy and I was looking forward to a bumper crop like the advert said. Oh well, maybe next year. Jan