What to Do About Cherry Blossom Drop and Fruit Drop? Latest Control Methods Explained
After cherry trees drop their blossoms, the fruit set will certainly be reduced, but even so, fruit drop can still occur, which brings great losses to fruit growers. If this problem has not occurred yet, you should learn about prevention; if it has already occurred, you can read the following content carefully. It will briefly introduce the causes of blossom and fruit drop and the preventive measures.
I. Causes of Blossom and Fruit Drop
1. Pollination and fertilization
Heavy rain during the flowering period leads to incomplete flower development, such as incomplete, deformed, or missing styles, resulting in failure to fertilize or poor fertilization. Rainwater causes pollen to lose viability and its pollination function, so pollination cannot be completed; pollen is washed away or becomes sticky, and wind pollination cannot be relied upon.
2. Nutritional deficiency
Flowering and fruiting require most of the nutrients, especially supplemental nitrogen fertilizer. If fertilizer is insufficient and nutrients are limited, the ovary will drop and stop expanding and developing. No fruit will set; young fruit lacking fertilizer will stop growing, and physiological blossom and fruit drop will occur in both cases. The growth of spring shoots or summer shoots consumes a large amount of nutrients, and flowering and fruiting drop due to insufficient nutrition.
3. Improper management
After spring shoots are damaged by red spider mites, large-scale leaf drop is caused, or leaves yellow, making photosynthesis impossible; reduced nutrients will cause blossom and fruit drop. Sunburn and scorch are triggers of fruit drop. Using too much fertilizer, or using fertilizer with high concentration or high heat, or prolonged waterlogging after rain damaging the roots, leads to reduced absorption capacity and thus blossom and fruit drop. Abnormal tree growth and hormone secretion disorders, without timely use of growth regulators, will cause the fruit stalk to form an abscission layer and drop.
II. Solutions
1. Hand pollination
Pay attention to the weather in real time. Before continuous rain, first collect enough pollen. After the continuous rain has stopped, hand pollination can be carried out in time, so the development period will not be missed and the fruit-setting rate will be increased. If rain occurs during flowering, plastic wrap can be used as a cover to prevent rainwater from entering the tree canopy.
2. Supplemental nutrition
Apply nitrogen fertilizer once before flowering or after fruit set respectively to ensure fertilizer supply and avoid nutrient deficiency. Apply some additional phosphorus and potassium fertilizer so the fruit can expand quickly and set firmly, and is not easy to drop. For physiological blossom and fruit drop, gibberellin must be sprayed at this time to protect blossoms and fruit.
3. Management
Do not apply excessive nitrogen fertilizer, which makes leaves dark green and attracts insect damage. After damage by red spider mites, promptly spray pesticides such as abamectin, azocyclotin, and fenbutatin oxide. Apply fertilizer in just the right amount each time, not too much, and do not apply poultry manure with high heat. After rain, clear drainage channels and drain water quickly.
Besides physiological fruit drop caused by fertilizer deficiency, cherry blossom and fruit drop also have various other causes. Based on the symptoms shown by the tree, you should be able to determine the cause, and then find a suitable method to solve this problem that troubles everyone. Then our goal is achieved.