What to do if your fruit tree does not yield fruit

[Amaris]

Here comes the season again. All your neighbors are enjoying Avocados, Guavas, Mangoes and Oranges. You have the same trees in your garden. However, unlike them, your trees have little to no fruits. There is an old technique i learnt from my grandmother which as i came to learn later is called "Scoring" it involves cutting parts of the bark of the tree systematically. I have already tried it with the mango tree. I really hope to finally enjoy some this month.Let me know if you need guidelines on how to go about it and the type of fruit tree.

 

[Amalia]

I know that cutting the bark of the trees often leads to the death of the tree. Let me know how your method worked out.

 

[lovinglife]

Maybe your tree needs pruned?

 

[Amalia]

I also think the trees need to be pruned. It's safer.

 

[maddie]

I believe you need to prune your trees if you expect them to yield fruits in season. I have heard about cutting the bark but I have not heard about their efficiency in good yields. I would dig around the trees and manure them a few months before the fruit season. Organic is the way to go of course. Look out for parasite plants and pest and control them. Pruning would handle most of these issues I guess.

 

[loopyloo]

Here comes the season again. All your neighbors are enjoying Avocados, Guavas, Mangoes and Oranges. You have the same trees in your garden. However, unlike them, your trees have little to no fruits. There is an old technique i learnt from my grandmother which as i came to learn later is called "Scoring" it involves cutting parts of the bark of the tree systematically. I have already tried it with the mango tree. I really hope to finally enjoy some this month.Let me know if you need guidelines on how to go about it and the type of fruit tree.

I know that my trees sometimes just skip a year. My Grandmothers tree does this as well. Its normal for trees to have years where they just dont give off as much fruit and sometimes dont give off any. Have you tried to make sure the tree is getting adequate nutrients? Maybe adding a fertilizer spike can bring it back for next year.

 

[justusforus]

I wondered about this when I saw the thread. Since many are saying to prune the tree, what is the best time to do so?

 

[Kansas Terri]

I have not tried it, but I have heard if you bend down a limb in the spring and tie it to keep it bent, it may trigger fruiting the NEXT year. This is because sugars tend to collect on the bent part, and this stimulates fruiting.

Then again, since all of your trees are doing this, there might be a different cause. Have you asked your neighbors how they treat their land? Do they fertilize or lime? Do they prune? Do their trees get more sun?, Do you have blossoms?

If your trees bloom but do not fruit, you might live in a frost pocket: I did not get any peaches this year and I only got 3 apples, because a late frost damaged the blossoms. Some of the blossoms were obviously frosted, but some of the blossoms still LOOKED pretty! However they did not set fruit.

 

[Shellyann36]

I agree with several others here when they mention pruning the tree. Have you pruned the tree at all? How long have you had them? The pruning helps to stimulate the tree in general and makes room for the fruit. Here are a few links for some information.

http://www.gardenguides.com/video-61920-prune-fruit-trees.html

http://thebestgardening.com/pruning-fruit-trees/

I hope this helps. Our plum tree stopped producing as much as it normally does and we pruned it a bit and it produced more. We were a bit scared to prune it because it was our first time at trying it. Thankfully it ended up being helpful and we will prune it again since we know it works.

 

[headfullofbees]

Prune your trees immediately after their fruiting period to encourage maximum fruit crop the following year.

 

[gata montes]

As someone who grows fruit trees of just about every description, would definitely agree with Headfullofbees, and say that you should always prune your fruit trees immediately after fruiting, and it is particularly important to prune trees that bear stone fruits such apricots, peaches and plums at this time, because, if left until later in the year you stand the chance of your trees becoming diseased.
Pruning normally solves the problem of trees not fruiting and especially the older neglected ones, which normally respond very favorably to some fairly heavy pruning,
If your trees are regularly pruned and you still don't get fruit, its probably because as already mentioned, that the young buds were caught by frost whilst forming, which if the tree is not too big, can normally be solved by protecting the tree with horticultural fleece.

 

[Ruth B]

My grandmother's persimmon tree only produced really well every other year. Every other year, there was little to none. But when it did, it was WOAH, a boatload. But yes, I have always heard about pruning.

 

[remnant]

I know of a method from South America that induces flowering and involves stimulating the production of the flowering hormone florigen. It involves gathering wet branches under a fruit tree and burning them. The smoke is the inducing factor in this case. Another method involves digging a shallow ring around a fruit tree and depositing potassium nitrate in the ring.

 

[Pat]

How old are the trees? It does take a few years of growth for the trees to bare fruit. I would prune and feed the trees and make sure they are getting enough water. Hope that helps.

 

[kgord]

Yes, I think the above personmay have the right idea to consider. Fruit bearing trees are sometimes slow to produce and may not even do so very year.It is important to factor this in.