My Peach Tree Doesn’t Bear Fruit: What Can You Do?
Not fruiting peach trees is a problem that frustrates many people.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Learning more about the causes of a dead peach tree is the first step in finding a solution to the problem.
Some of the most common reasons why your peach tree does not bear fruit:
- Lack of fertilization or fertilizer.
- Improper temperatures.
- You have not pruned it or you have pruned it too much.
- Previous year’s harvest too abundant.
Once you know why a peach tree is not bearing fruit, you can fix the problem so that next year there will be plenty of peach trees bearing fruit.
Generally, peach trees begin to bear fruit two to four years after planting. There are several factors that can cause a peach tree to not bear fruit when expected.
Among them are the excess of fertilization, the inadequate pruning, the low temperatures, the lack of hours of cold and the residual effects of the harvest of the previous season. How to fix peach trees that don’t bear fruit
Fertilization: Are you feeding him enough?
Fertilizing with high- nitrogen fertilizers encourages the peach tree to focus its attention on producing new shoots and leaves at the expense of fruit.
If a peach tree is growing well and the foliage and new growth appear healthy, it may not need any type of fertilizer.
Remember that when you mulch the lawn around a peach tree, you are mulching both the tree and the lawn.
Lawn fertilizers are very rich in nitrogen and can affect fruit production. The addition of phosphorus can help offset this.
Pruning
Some types of pruning have a similar effect on peach fruit set.
Removing an entire branch promotes fruiting, while removing part of a branch, called going back, promotes new growth at the expense of fruit.
Temperature
Peach trees begin to form flower buds for the previous year’s harvest. This means that the cocoons are already formed when winter comes.
Unusually cold winter temperatures or warm winter temperatures followed by a sudden drop can damage buds so they won’t open, resulting in little or no fruit on peach trees.
Lack of cold hours
The flip side of temperatures being too low at the wrong time is that it may not be cold enough where you live for the tree to receive an adequate number of chill hours.
This can lead to fruit being misshapen or even missing.
Before planting a certain variety of peach tree, it is recommended that you look at how it resists hot summers or cold winters, depending on the area where you live.
Previous year’s harvest
When the production of the year is very abundant, the peach tree usually needs all the necessary nutrients.
In this case, the peach tree does not have the resources to produce flower buds for the following year’s harvest, which results in no fruit on the peach trees the following year.
You can help the tree distribute its resources evenly by thinning the fruit during peak production years.
Do you need two peach trees to get peaches?
Many types of fruit trees, such as apples and pears, need two different varieties growing close to each other for proper fertilization.
Peach trees are self-fertile, meaning that a single tree, with the presence of suitable pollinating insects, can pollinate itself.
Other reasons a tree doesn’t bear peaches are overcrowding and lack of sun.
Treatment with the insecticide carbaryl can also cause some or all of the fruit to fall from the tree before it matures.
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