Posts Tagged: tree fruit
My Apricot Tree Didn't Produce Fruit This Year
Advice for the Home Gardener from the Help Desk of the
UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County
Client's Request: I've managed to grow an apricot tree from seed. It's now big enough that it has produced a few apricots in prior years. However, it hasn't produced any fruit now for several years. What is preventing fruiting and what can I do to get fruit?
The apricot tree's lack of fruit production could be due to flower or young fruit damage from weather; it could be due to reduced pollination, also potentially affected by weather; it could be due to tree damage caused by a pest or pests, or it could be a nutrition issue for the tree.
Weather
Fruit trees form their flower buds in the fall. Lack of rain or high winds can damage buds before they blossom. Spring rains or late-spring frosts can also damage or kill buds and blossoms. Apricots in general perform best in climates with dry spring weather. This year we had both late frosts and spring rains in parts of the County. Last year we also had significant spring rains, and prior to that several dry years in succession. So, weather could certainly have had a negative impact on the fruit production of your apricot tree for the past several years.
Reduced Pollination
Pollination issues could also have played a role. Fruit production depends on pollination, which is the transfer of pollen from the male part (anther) of a flower to the female part (pistil) of the same or another flower usually of the same species. Apricots are self-fruitful, meaning that they may be pollinated by pollen from another flower on the same tree, or in the case of apricots, by pollen from the same flower. The transfer of pollen from one variety to a different variety of the same type of tree is called cross- pollination. Although not required, cross-pollination does improve the number of fruit that form on apricots. Pollinators, such as bees, are usually responsible for apricot pollination.
This link to a Penn State University extension website
https://extension.psu.edu/pollination-requirements-for-various-fruits-and-nuts
identifies several factors can affect pollination:
Temperatures below 55-60°F reduce bee activity
Windy and rainy weather can slow bee activity
Presence of other flowers -- the fruit plants generally are poor nectar producers and bees will naturally seek out the best nectar producing flowers
Most insecticides will reduce bee activity -- therefore do not spray them during bloom
Pests affecting apricot trees
Apricots are susceptible to a variety of pests, listed at this link:
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/apricots.html
These include sucking and boring insects and other invertebrates, and bacterial and fungus diseases. If, after reading the descriptions, you suspect that you have any of these issues, there are controls suggested at the same link and sub-links.
Cultural care
The best prevention is good cultural care. Maintaining a good fertilization program can keep your tree vigorous and help prevent infections. Adequate irrigation will help as well.
http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/Fruits_&_Nuts/Apricot_Prunus_armeniaca_L/
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/CULTURAL/apricotfert.html
http://homeorchard.ucanr.edu/The_Big_Picture/Irrigation/
With respect to pruning your tree, apricot trees should be pruned in late summer, since they are susceptible to a fungus infection if pruned during wet weather. Because of this, they should be pruned in August -- after fruit production is complete, and early enough to allow time for pruning wounds to close prior to the beginning of winter rains. Information on pruning apricots can be found at this link.
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/CULTURAL/apripruning.html
I hope that this information is helpful. If you have any questions about the material in these links, or anything else, please contact us again.
Good luck with your tree!
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (MCW)
Note: The UC Master Gardeners Program of Contra Costa's Help Desk is available year-round to answer our gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday for walk-ins from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523, although we will be moving this spring. We will notify you if/when that occurs. We can also be reached via telephone: (925)646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, or on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/Ask_Us/ MGCC Blogs can be found at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/HortCoCo/ You can also subscribe to the Blog (//ucanr.edu/blogs/CCMGBlog/)
Maxwell Norton, director of UCCE in Merced County, to retire after 36 years
Norton is “probably the kind of person everyone would like to know – a kind and gentle soul who exudes knowledge and wisdom,” said Bill Martin, executive director of Central Valley Farmland Trust.
For the past 10 years, Martin has worked on conserving farmland with Norton, who was a founding member of the Merced County Farmland and Open Space Trust, which merged with two other land trusts to become Central Valley Farmland Trust.
“He has an understanding of the landscape that is greatly appreciated,” Martin said of Norton. “He's very low-key, observant and provides timely input on provocative issues that come up at board meetings.”
Raised on a farm near Salida, north of Modesto, Norton studied pomology at Fresno State University, earning a B.S. and an M.S. in plant science before joining UC Cooperative Extension.
During his career, the UC Cooperative Extension advisor has helped Merced County growers solve problems in kiwifruit, Asian pears, prunes, peaches, strawberries, figs and pomegranates.
“When I started in 1979, there was rapid growth of two new industries – kiwifruit and Asian pears,” Norton said. “I conducted some early research trials on kiwifruit and authored a chapter of the new UC Cooperative Extension production manual for kiwifruit. I also spent a lot of time diagnosing Asian pear problems.”
Early in Norton's career, UC scientists introduced a device for measuring soil moisture called a neutron probe. The young advisor tested the device in peach orchards on clay-loam soils, attempting to correlate the probe, gypsum blocks, tensiometers and pressure chamber data.
“All of these tools were relatively new then,” said Norton. “Mid-day values had not been established yet so data collection entailed going out at 3 a.m. to pick leaves and measure the leaf water potential while crouching in the back seat of my government-issued Plymouth Fury.”
Collaborating with his UC Cooperative Extension colleague Roger Duncan in Stanislaus County, Norton conducted several research projects aimed at reducing labor costs in peaches. Projects included mechanical fruit thinning, chemical blossom thinning and various types of mechanical blossom thinning.
Research by Norton and his fellow Cooperative Extension advisors showed that mature prune trees could be pruned every other year and still produce desirable fruit size and maintain yields. Growers widely adopted the practice of alternate year pruning. Later, Cooperative Extension set out to demonstrate the new integrated prune farming practices where IPM tools were integral parts of the system.
In the early 1980s, when many grape growers were spraying pesticides three to four times a year, leafhoppers developed resistance to some insecticides. Norton and other UC experts saw the potential for biological control by the Anagris parasitic wasp. UC Cooperative Extension advisors persuaded growers to not spray the first or second generations of leafhoppers and let the beneficial insects control the pests. Now grape growers rarely have to spray for leafhoppers.
Over Norton's career, agriculture in Merced County has diversified. He began having strawberry meetings translated into Hmong or Lao for immigrant growers and studying pomegranates and figs.
Off the farm, Norton has been active in community development, organizing workshops for farmers on how to export their products, chairing the Merced County Economic Development Task Force twice and serving twice as president of the county's Chamber of Commerce.
“My favorite part of the job has always been doing farm calls, where I went out and visited growers and diagnosed problems, explaining the nature of the problem, and most importantly, suggest things to try,” Norton said.
In retirement, Norton plans on playing his tenor and bari sax in jazz bands, training UC Master Gardeners and volunteering with the local historical society and other organizations.
He has also been granted emeritus status by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
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Mystery Tree-Learning about an American Classic
My friends recently moved to a beautiful new country home, which sits on an acre of land with a creek. While walking in their yard, they pointed to a large tree about 25-30 feet tall and full of what looked like blackberries hanging from the tree. I’d never seen a tree full of blackberries. I looked expecting to see thorns and vines twisting among the branches but they were actually growing from the tree. My friend explained that the wild turkeys come and jump up to eat the berries, so they didn’t think the berries were poisonous. I took a few pictures and started my search…
It turns out that my friends have several mulberry trees in their yard. I’d often heard of fruitless mulberry trees, but I had never seen one with fruit. I discovered there are 150 different varieties of mulberry trees (Morus spp.) and many, many hybrids. The Red mulberry or American mulberry (M. rubra) is native in the eastern United States. The White mulberry (Morus alba) trees were originally imported from Asia during early colonial times because they are used to raise silk worms.
The mulberry tree is deciduous and often grown near the edge of open woodlands and near fresh water, which described the location on their property perfectly. The fruit is edible and is used for pies and jams because of its sweet and slightly tart flavor. The color of the actual fruit, does not determine the variety. The fruit can be white, pink, red and black but the fruit is really not a berry. It’s an aggregate fruit, which means it’s composed of lots of little berries stuck together, each with its own seed. The fruit is long and shaped similar to a blackberry, but hangs from a short, slender fruit stalk. The fruit is supposed to be delicious however; the color from the fruit is used as dyes so can easily stains things that the juices seeps into. That also including the droppings from birds when eat the berry, so the tree has a bad reputation among suburban homeowners.
After looking at the shape of the leaves, I believe that my friends have the Black mulberry (Morus nigra ) species that is native to southwestern Asia. It’s a beautiful full size tree in their large backyard. It’s in a great location. I think they will be gathering lots of delicious black mulberries for many years to come.
Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush…here we go around the mulberry bush so early in the morning…
Sources:
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_nigra
http://www.pfaf.org/user/plant.aspx?latinname=Morus+nigra
http://www.ehow.com/how_5637978_make-mulberry-trees-produce-fruit.html
Mulberry fruit. (photos by Esther Blanco)
More fruit and leaves.
Private eye for peach pie
The Fresno Bee profiled a local business over the weekend that pursues confidential research projects to help clients - such as fruit breeders, growers and sellers - identify fruit varieties that look great, taste delicious, grow easily and store well.
Fruit Dynamics monitors 10 stone-fruit breeding programs, evaluating 400 to 600 unreleased cultivars each year for the fresh and processing fruit markets.Tree fruit growers are looking to the company to boost their industry, in which profits have dipped due to high production and competition from a greater diversity of fruit choices, such as relatively new California blueberries.
Fruit Dynamics owner Eric Gaarde has been collecting fruit variety characteristics since the 1990s, the article said."Their database is, without a doubt, the most unique fruit database in the world," UC Cooperative Extension tree fruit farm advisor Kevin Day told reporter Joan Obra.
"What they've done across geographic breeding lines is absolutely unparalleled," Day was quoted in the story. "It's staggering, the data they have."
Day offers information on tree fruit fresh-shipping, production practices, fruit growth and development, pruning and training systems on the Tulare County UC Cooperative Extension website.
Fruit Dynamics maintains an extensive tree fruit database.