Content
- 1 What year do cherries bear fruit?
- 2 How many years does a cherry bear fruit?
- 3 Will one cherry bear fruit?
- 4 Why don't cherry blossoms bloom?
- 5 Why do cherries bear fruit poorly?
- 6 What to do if the cherry blossoms but does not bear fruit
- 7 How to make cherries bear fruit
- 8 Preventive measures for abundant fruiting
- 9 Conclusion
Cherries do not bear fruit - many gardeners face this problem. Although a flowering cherry tree is very beautiful, it is still valued for its juicy fruits, and it is very unpleasant if you still cannot wait for them.
What year do cherries bear fruit?
In some cases, the lack of fruiting may be due to the tree being too young. The usual fruiting period for cherries is 3-5 years of life, depending on the variety and growing conditions. Fruits appear on its branches from June to early September - different varieties bear fruit at different times.
How many years does a cherry bear fruit?
Another probable reason why there are no fruits on cherries is old age. After 15 years of life, the productivity of the tree decreases, and fewer and fewer fruits are produced on the branches. Cherries after 20 years often stop bearing fruit completely.
Fruiting does not occur in too young or old cherry trees
Will one cherry bear fruit?
Many gardeners plant cherries on a plot individually, forgetting that most tree varieties are self-sterile. If a variety is not able to set fruit without pollinators, then even the best conditions will not force it to bear fruit.
One cherry can bear fruit only if it is self-fertile. Self-fertile varieties include Mayak, Lyubskaya, Brunette, Annushka and some others.
Why don't cherry blossoms bloom?
Sometimes a cherry tree not only does not bear fruit, but does not even bloom. If flowering is absent in a young plant before 3 years of life, then there is no particular reason for concern; before entering the fruiting period, this situation is quite normal.
But if the plant is already 5 years old or more, and it still does not bloom, or we are talking about an adult tree that bloomed in previous years, then the gardener needs to worry. There are several main reasons for the lack of flowering in a fruit crop:
- Freezing of flower buds during winter. This happens with heat-loving varieties, as well as when the autumn was too mild in the previous season. If the weather in October is excessively warm, then the cherry tree, which has almost gone into a dormant state, may “wake up” again and begin the growing season. Accordingly, when winter cold sets in, the plant will be more vulnerable, and the flower buds will die from frost. In this case, next year the fruit crop will neither bloom nor bear fruit.
- Freezing of buds and buds in spring.If the usual spring frosts came very late, when the cherry tree had already fully woken up and was ready to bloom, then even frosts down to -1 ° C can cause irreparable damage to the tree.
- Lack of minerals and vitamins. Cherries often refuse to bloom in soil that is too poor. If the gardener has not fertilized with organic matter and minerals for a long time, then the tree simply will not have enough strength to form buds, much less ovaries.
- Diseases and pests. With poor care, cherries suffer from fungal diseases and harmful insects. Disease spores weaken the vitality of the plant and disrupt the biological cycle, and pests with serious damage can simply destroy the green foliage and buds of the cherry tree in the middle of spring.
If not properly cared for, the plant may not only fail to bear fruit, but may not even bloom.
Lack of flowering can also be caused by improper watering, too rough pruning or neglect of annual pruning. If a fruit crop refuses to bloom, then first of all you need to solve this problem; only with normal flowering will the tree bear fruit.
Why do cherries bear fruit poorly?
Good flowering does not guarantee that the plant will bear fruit. Sometimes in the spring a cherry tree blooms very profusely, but never sets fruit or drops the ovaries before they have time to develop.
Wrong choice of seedling
One of the reasons why cherries may not bear fruit is the initial wrong choice of seedling. Purchasing a variety that does not correspond to the weather conditions of the region. For example, cherries do not bear fruit in the Moscow region if they are intended for the southern regions, and even more so they grow poorly in Siberia and the Urals.Cold weather in spring interferes with flowering and fruit set, and some flower buds die in winter.
Buying a diseased or weakened seedling is another reason. If a plant from a nursery looks bad, has weak roots or is infected with fungal diseases, then you can’t expect it to bear fruit.
Cherry varieties need to be selected according to the region
Improper care
Cherry is considered a hardy and fairly unpretentious tree. But careless care still often leads to the cherry dropping its fruit ovaries and refusing to bear fruit:
- If you do not pay attention to fertilizing, the cherry tree will quickly deplete the soil on the site. In this case, the plant will not have the strength to bear fruit. For good tree development, you need to annually add both organic fertilizers and complex minerals to the soil.
- Excessive fertilizing can also cause cherries to stop bearing fruit. For example, oversaturation of the soil with nitrogen can be harmful - cherries will grow actively, but the level of fruiting and winter hardiness will decrease.
- Cherries do not bear fruit without regular pruning. If the tree crown is too thick, then the plant spends all its energy on maintaining shoots and foliage - there are simply no resources left for the ovary and development of berries.
- Improper pruning can limit fruiting.Some gardeners, due to inexperience, cut off annual tree shoots responsible for fruiting, or remove bouquet buds on two- or three-year-old shoots.
- The quality of shelter for the winter greatly influences the yield. Even cold-resistant varieties must be mulched with a dense layer of organic matter in late autumn, and during periods of severe frost, the trunk must be covered with spruce branches or roofing material.
Watering and fertilizers play a big role in the fruiting of garden crops
The crop stops bearing fruit if watered too much or insufficiently. In the first case, the roots of the plant suffer; due to excess moisture, fungal diseases and rot develop. If there is not enough water, the tree does not receive the required amount of nutrients.
Adverse weather conditions
With good care, the plant may also not bear fruit in some years. The reason is unfavorable weather, namely:
- late spring frosts, if negative temperatures return at the moment when the cherry is already prepared for flowering and pollination, then the tree is unlikely to be able to bear fruit;
- warm autumn, even on frost-resistant varieties, flower buds may die in winter if, due to a long, warm autumn, the cherry goes to rest too late;
- rainy spring, the pollination process, and therefore fruiting, depends on bees and other pollinating insects that do not fly in rainy weather.
Diseases and pests
Fungal diseases and harmful insects pose a serious threat to the cherry harvest. Most often, cherries stop bearing fruit due to the following ailments:
- coccomycosis - with this disease, the leaves of the tree become covered with brown spots, turn yellow and fall off, due to which the biological cycle is interrupted and fruiting does not occur;
- moniliosis - the disease affects the formed ovary and leads to its shedding; also, with a monilial burn, the foliage and bark of the plant turn brown.
Plants affected by fungi and pests may not bear fruit.
Aphids, cherry flies, weevils and sawflies can cause a plant to fail to bear fruit. The listed pests eat up the leaves of the cherry tree or destroy the ovary, so you need to carefully monitor their appearance.
What to do if the cherry blossoms but does not bear fruit
If the cherry blossomed, but the fruits did not set, then first of all it is necessary to reconsider the growing conditions and care algorithm:
- The plant stops bearing fruit in unsuitable soils. If the soil on the site is too acidic, it must be treated with lime, chalk or ash to achieve neutrality of the soil. The soil also needs to be loosened regularly for good oxygen saturation and weeds must be removed in a timely manner.
- If there is no fruiting, you need to pay attention to watering; perhaps the cherries do not have enough moisture, or, on the contrary, the soil is waterlogged. In the first case, you need to increase the number of waterings and ensure that the soil remains slightly moist. In the second, reduce watering and organize good drainage in the area with the tree.
- Every year the plant must be fed with nitrogenous fertilizers in the spring, and during the flowering period - with potassium and phosphorus.Fertilizers can be applied both mineral and organic, but the tree needs to be fertilized 2-3 times during the spring.
Every season, the plant needs to undergo sanitary pruning - remove all dry, diseased and too old branches that are no longer involved in the formation of fruits.
To wait for fruits from the cherry tree, you need to be careful about the rules of care
How to make cherries bear fruit
If all the rules of care are followed, but the cherry blossoms still bloom profusely, but there are no berries, then perhaps the reason is insufficient pollination. There are several ways to solve the problem:
- Plant pollinating varieties close to the cherries; perhaps the cherries already growing on the site are not suitable for the role of pollinators in terms of flowering time or are located too far from each other. New trees are likely to improve overall fruiting.
- Additionally attract bees during flowering. If beneficial insects do not pollinate the garden well, then during the cherry blossom period the trees can be sprayed with honey solution or small containers with honey and jam can be hung on the branches. The sweet smell will attract bees and pollination will improve.
Also, before flowering, to improve the ovary, you can spray the cherry with a solution of boric acid - dilute 1 bottle of the product in 10 liters of water. After flowering, you can spray with stimulants, for example, “Universal Ovary.”
The quality of pollination can be improved artificially - by spraying with sweet solutions
Preventive measures for abundant fruiting
By following a few simple rules, you can prevent crop failures and constantly maintain cherry fruiting at a good level. The gardener needs:
- choose the right plant seedling when purchasing - for the northern regions they buy frost-resistant varieties, for the southern regions they buy heat-loving varieties, it is also important to purchase a completely healthy plant;
- plant the tree on the right soil - it should be loose, moderately moist and with a neutral pH;
- water the tree in a timely manner, avoiding drying out of the soil or stagnation of moisture;
- regularly apply potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, as well as organic matter;
- plant several cherry varieties close to each other for cross-pollination;
- Prune the cherry tree annually so that the plant does not waste energy feeding excess shoots;
- Carefully insulate the cherry tree before winter, paying special attention to mulching the tree trunk circle - the mulch layer should be at least 10 cm.
Cherries with late flowering demonstrate the most stable fruiting. Even if the spring turns out to be cold, the last frosts have time to end by the time the tree opens its buds.
The yield of fruit crops is influenced by all factors - soil quality, fertilizing, pruning
Conclusion
Cherries do not bear fruit - many gardeners face this problem, and there are many possible reasons. If basic care rules are followed and pollination is stimulated, yields can usually be returned to a high level.
