A blossoming cherry tree is a spectacular sight. The disappointment is all the greater when the long-awaited fruit does not come after the flowering period. Various reasons can be responsible for the missing harvest.
In the case of young trees, there is a possibility that they have not yet reached the productive age. Depending on the variety and size of the tree, sweet cherry trees bear fruit from around the age of 5, and sour cherries sometimes earlier. In order to avoid disappointment, you should find out when you can expect the first harvest when you buy it.
Other common causes of the missing harvest can be:
- lack of pollination,
- frost during flowering,
- copper and zinc deficiency,
- shotgun disease.
fertilization problems
The numerous flowers usually promise a good yield. However, a fruit cannot develop from the flower until the seeds of the female flowers have been pollinated with pollen from the male flowers. Insects, especially bees, take care of this.
In self-pollinating cherries, the male and female fertilization organs are ripe at the same time and can fertilize each other. However, many sweet cherry varieties require another pollinator variety in the vicinity. If this is missing, there will be no fruit. The flowers can also freeze to death if there is a sudden frost, so that no more fruit can form from them.
deficiency symptoms and diseases
A lack of fruit formation may indicate a lack of supply of the trace elements copper and zinc. The cherry tree only needs these in small quantities, but their lack can have an impact on fruit formation. Such deficiency symptoms often occur on light and dry sandy soils. This can be remedied by an appropriate fertilizer that is spread on the tree disc before winter.
Another possible cause of the lack of harvest can be shotgun disease, which can be recognized by brown, pitted leaves. Not only the leaves are attacked by the infection, but also the flowers, from which only isolated, puny fruits are formed.
tips and tricks
In a wet or cold spring, sometimes there is not enough bee flight and therefore no fertilization. In this case one only has to hope that next spring will be better flying weather for bees.