16 May 2018

A bumper year for fruit?

Pear blossom in April


Now that the last of the fruit blossom has dropped - quince excepted - my current obsession is to walk around the garden checking for fruitlets.  I've been gardening in the veg patch for almost a decade now and this has become a bit of an annual ritual.  I'm looking after ten fruit trees (apples, pears, plums, cherries and quince) as well as soft fruit and it's incredibly frustrating to see beautiful blossom fall to the ground before being pollinated. So, every spring, I'm on the lookout for fruit set. It's a hazard of urban gardening that any wind is funnelled between buildings, creating challenging conditions for insects to pollinate and blossom to stay put on the tree.  This year though, I've got a good feeling that the crazy weather so far this year might just have been the perfect thing for the fruit trees.



Bitter cold kept the trees dormant until early April and then we leapt into a confusing spring that alternated between warm sunshine and heavy rain - perfect for giving the trees a steady supply of water and warmth to wake up buds on the branches. Our trees are self fertile but fruit better if pollinators are around so a few days of warmth helped there too. Time will tell whether those pollinators were more interested in the tulips, daffodils and forget-me-nots rather than fruit blossom! It's crucial that plants are well watered when fruit is setting, something of an annual challenge for me as there is no easy access to water in the veg garden. So when it rains heavily, as it did last weekend, I just end up smiling.

(A little bit of botany: once the flower has been pollinated, water is directed to swell the pericarp which then slowly expands  around the seed or stone to make the flesh of apples, pears, cherries, etc. Without sufficient moisture, the pericarp withers and the fruitlet falls from the tree.)

This year I also made a start on pruning out congested branches in the centre of the plum and pear trees, back in the depths of winter; I wanted to see if better airflow through the centre of the tree canopies would improve things. Branches that were crossing over, heading into the middle of the tree or those poker straight 'water' shoots were all removed.

Growers Tip:
There's still more pruning to be done so the plan is to have another go at the end of summer.  Around this time trees begin their winter dormancy so energy is going back into the roots instead of the branches. Late summer pruning  allows trees to be shaped without promoting more growth. Stone fruit, such as cherries and plums, should be pruned, if needed, at that time anyway to reduce the risk of succumbing to airborne viruses.



Clockwise from top left:
Pretty cherry fruitlets, plums, apples, apple blossom

So after all that, has it worked? Probably too early for certainty but recent signs have led me to be cautiously optimistic of some fruit this year. Plum trees planted at the start of the veg patch nearly a decade ago, have never fruited; pear numbers have been sketchy at best. This year though with warmth, watering and better airflow, I'm seeing tiny fruitlets swelling in a very positive way, even on the plum tree.  In past years, with no plum fruit to harvest, I've threatened to chop down the plum tree then relented and given it another chance. Wouldn't it be wonderful if this was the year that the tree rewarded my patience?


Conference pear fruitlets
Several very round pear fruitlets on both pear trees.
What's going on?
And, in other news, there looks like being plenty of apples and pears - although some of the pear fruit look more like apples which is definitely weird. Ironically, as I don't eat sour cherries, the cherry trees are always laden with fruit as Morello cherries do well in our east facing border. The quince still has blossom (just) with plump little velveteen swellings behind; last year the tree produced five viable quinces but all developed some kind of rot before they could be picked. Very disappointing. I'm hoping for much, much better this year.

8 comments:

  1. I do the same thing. The next stage is anxiously watching that the fruitlets don’t fall.

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    Replies
    1. I'm not optimistic about the plum tree and have decided that one of the two trees will get the chop at the end of the year if not successful. Ten years is enough of a chance, yes?

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  2. Hopefully that will be the case, fruits a plenty!

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  3. Hurray! A great - or even good - harvest of fruit can be so elusive. I'm also very hopeful that we will have a bumper fruit harvest (and perhaps a first harvest of nectarines??) due to late flowering. Fingers crossed for both of us!

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    Replies
    1. That would be amazing to get nectarines, Margaret! Plum fruit has been so elusive for me, I think the tree is in the wrong place so if it doesn't fruit this year I'll have to rethink.

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  4. Oh...I'm with you! I prowl the fruit trees rather manically! It is looking like a good year for fruit for you, without a doubt. I thought the same thing, this year I even have apricots....whatever next!xxx

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    Replies
    1. I hope it's a good year for both of us, Dina! Now, apricots, what a treat! Maybe I need to make better use of the warm walls around here! xxx

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