Is this true if a fruit tree under stress will likely go in bloom than leaf? Fruit trees under heavy load are under stress. If they carry it late into fall they might not be able to survive the winter, not have,t time to recoup.
Citrus can be induced to bloom by stressing them by withholding water.
A much better way doing blooming citrus and for that matter to use Floralicious Plus. I can attest to that.
Using this stuff for years now, it works for other tree’s as well. This is not the only company that makes a similar product. But like anything else, if the tree is under stress, it will drop a whole lot of flowers and young fruitlings.
Here is something to think about. I your tree loose all it’s flowers during a late freeze, I apply this stuff and see if the tree will rebloom. I feel there is a possibility it will.
This product is a one time application, one t-spoon per one gallon of water. Results could show in a week.
Responses are not a one-size-fits all. When it comes to an overloaded tree it will still follow the pattern of the season and try to mature on schedule but you will end up with a ton of sub size fruit. For apple the following year more likely than not the tree will have not have fruit, or put a very reduced crop.
This is what happened in my yard, yours might be totally different. Look at the bottle, 4 years later still a little bit left. Am I going to order a new bottle, yes, but for my own use.
Here is a Jaboticaba tree, that was totally bear 2 weeks ago. It has just showing some new growth, than this. Same thing with my 20 plus citrus tree’s.
Will the holding back of water (after it blooms), will the fruit drop?
I suspect that holding back water after it blooms will cause blossoms to drop but am not sure. I have never done this.
The point here is, you don’t want the your tree in stress mode by not watering or not feeding. My point is the chemical I am using is a different way of inducing flowering, in a short time. It’s up to the tree to drop their load. If the tree is in good shape it will drop less flowers. Floralicious plus is what I am using, there are more chemicals like that, that are available. You can use low Biuret if you want to.
For those that prefer a more “organic” approach:
Susan Harris, a Walker County Master Gardener, had a dogwood that wouldn’t bloom. She complained to an older neighbor, a fantastic gardener. The woman grabbed a baseball bat and, in Susan’s words, “whopped the tree trunk several times.” The next year the tree bloomed magnificently. Susan, now a firm believer, has “whopped” many a plant since. Her husband swears this is the reason his apple trees bear here.
https://blog.chron.com/lazygardener/2009/09/no-blooms-try-beating-your-plant/
EDIT:
Girdling by bruising the crap out of the cambium. I recall reading years ago about New Englanders who used to this by flagellating their trees with log chains, but I can’t find the reference to it now. I have no doubt the bat or the chains could work though - not functionally different from doing a bark inversion “graft.”
Geez, what’s wrong mixing a t spoon of chemical solution in a gl of water? This is 2021, things are made for your convenience.
I’m with you, Bob. There are other ways to coax trees into production.
Beating them up is not my cup of tea.
Btw Tippy, here is a small Tippy tree doing good. This Asian pear tree has several cuttings. Variety was grafted on a waterspout right at the base. Pears are laying at the cratch for support.
You need to show the tree that you are the alpha aka the orchard-leader. A tree will try to take advantage of you if you show signs of weakness, which is why I like to use a loud and deep voice while yelling the commands like GROW FASTER and RIPEN SOONER. This is also why people used to pee on trees: shows dominance.
These days people don’t pee on their trees and think that you can just sweet talk your trees into production.
Fortunately, Asian pears are usually productive. No need to beat them up
Exactly! The beneficial aspects of tree-abuse have been known from prehistoric times. We’ve lost touch. You can stress your trees emotionally and thereby cause them to set heavier crops than they otherwise might be inclined to. Do not overlook the necessity of “personsating” the tree, which is, after all, the focus of the following “brief” quote:
But the spirits of vegetation are not always treated with deference and respect. If fair words and kind treatment do not move them, stronger measures are sometimes resorted to. The durian-tree of the East Indies, whose smooth stem often shoots up to a height of eighty or ninety feet without sending out a branch, bears a fruit of the most delicious flavour and the most disgusting stench. The Malays cultivate the tree for the sake of its fruit, and have been known to resort to a peculiar ceremony for the purpose of stimulating its fertility. Near Jugra in Selangor there is a small grove of durian-trees, and on a specially chosen day the villagers used to assemble in it. Thereupon one of the local sorcerers would take a hatchet and deliver several shrewd blows on the trunk of the most barren of the trees, saying, “Will you now bear fruit or not? If you do not, I shall fell you.” To this the tree replied through the mouth of another man who had climbed a mangostin-tree hard by (the durian-tree being unclimbable), “Yes, I will now bear fruit; I beg of you not to fell me.” So in Japan to make trees bear fruit two men go into an orchard. One of them climbs up a tree and the other stands at the foot with an axe. The man with the axe asks the tree whether it will yield a good crop next year and threatens to cut it down if it does not. To this the man among the branches replies on behalf of the tree that it will bear abundantly. Odd as this mode of horticulture may seem to us, it has its exact parallels in Europe. On Christmas Eve many a South Slavonian and Bulgarian peasant swings an axe threateningly against a barren fruit-tree, while another man standing by intercedes for the menaced tree, saying, “Do not cut it down; it will soon bear fruit.” Thrice the axe is swung, and thrice the impending blow is arrested at the entreaty of the intercessor. After that the frightened tree will certainly bear fruit next year.
- Frazer, James George. “The Worship of Trees.” The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. 1922. Prod. David Reed. 23 Mar. 2003. Project Gutenberg. 3623. 15 June 2021 <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3623/3623-h/3623-h.htm>.
FYI. I am not emotionally attached to my trees (removed several). I don’t call my trees her or him, etc.
I just don’t have a need or a desire to beat up my trees for production. That’s all. People can do what they want. Some even need to do it. Different strokes for different floks.
I’m always a little wary of giving my Jaboticaba tree anything artificial/chemical. Mine struggled this past winter (it did not like the dryness) and when I brought it outside it only had a couple leaves left. Of course these promptly dropped.
I’ve been hoping it will push new leaves and as of last week I pruned it back hard as it was no longer showing green when scratched. Any suggestions on how to pull it back from the brink? I’d hate to lose it as it is now in its 3rd year with me
Scott
Don,t make it so stressful, I like to read what Scot, Tony, Tippy and a few more, how they do things. I don’t live in the past. I don’t even want to know what I did last year.