Orchards and gardens: how to make fruit bearing trees bear more fruit

Fruit tree varieties with regard to fruit production. Sometimes they need to be coaxed into producing more fruit.

Youâ€™ve probably heard of music affecting a trees growth and also heard of people talking to plants. Well, there is really something scientific behind that. The easiest way to make a fruit tree bear more fruit sounds a little crazy but it works. The tree must feel like it is under attack, and therefore needs to produce some seeds so the species will carry on after it dies. Sounds crazy, I know, but if you have any kind of fruit tree that is not bearing very much year after year, then try this simple solution. Trees are living things and have learned how to survive and carry on through difficult times. They adapt to situations, if they possibly can. All you have to do for an unproductive fruit tree to bear more fruit is to stimulate the reproductive hormones. Do this by whacking the side of its trunk six to eight times with a sturdy baseball bat. This will not hurt the tree.

Another solution to aiding a non-productive fruit tree is to pull down the branches that are growing vertical. When they are in an almost horizontal position they will get more sunlight. You need to keep them in this position by tying them down. Put a stake in the ground and tie the branches down with a string or twine. When the branches get more sunlight they will produce more flowers. When there are flowers, the fruit will follow.

You may wonder what makes a tree fail to be productive to begin with. There are many reasons, and one of the biggest ones is the environment. The health of the tree will affect its production also Find out what the fruiting habits are of the fruit tree variety you have. Cultural practices also play a big part in how productive a fruit tree will be. One thing that is essential for fruit yield is adequate pollination. All fruit trees are different. Some are self fruitful which means they pollinate from their own flowers. Others are self-unfruitful and require pollen from another variety of fruit tree in the same species. Some trees donâ€™t fit into either category, such as the pistachio tree. The male pistachio tree produces the pollen and the female produces the fruit. It takes one male pistachio tree for every eight females pistachio trees. The apple tree is self-unfruitful. Peach and apricot trees are self fruitful. The sour cherry tree bears heavy without any pollination. Some fruit trees are biennial bearing and only produce fruit every other year. Fruit trees usually do not bear for the first few years, so the bearing age of a tree depends on the variety of tree you have.

Be sure and keep your fruit trees disease and insect free. If they get infected it will surely affect the fruit production. Protect them from frost. After a frost the flowers may appear to be okay but if the pistils are killed there will be no fruit. The tree itself may look fine and undamaged, but frost can affect the fruit tree production significantly.

Always plant a fruit tree that is adapted to the area you live in. Be sure and learn the maturity size of the tree and properly space them when planted. Learn the proper way to prune a fruit tree and this will help fruit production also. Keep any rubbing branches pruned. Keep the center of the tree open so sunlight and air circulation can reach all the branches. By following these simple ideas you will have lots of fruit. Now if we can only keep the squirrels from eating the fruit before we harvest it, we would be in good shape.

Written by Yvonne Quarles - Â© 2002 Pagewise