Fruit Drop June is not all Doom and Gloom
by Ken Lain, the mountain gardener
Doom & Gloom a misperception in the Garden
After watching your fruit trees bloom spectacularly in the spring, then witnessing tiny fruits forming, it is disheartening to see them fall from the tree in June. Do not panic at this natural occurrence; it even has a name . . . June Drop.
June Drop is how fruit trees shed some of their immature fruits. To offset sudden losses from weather or other cultural factors, fruit trees often set more flowers than they need for a full crop. Only one bloom in 20 is needed for a good crop on a full-blossoming fruit tree.
Fruit trees set fruit so they can produce seed. Too large a crop will strain the tree’s
resources and result in smaller fruits of poor quality. Once they sense that weather and growing conditions are stable, trees protect themselves and their seeds by thinning their crops. The immature fruits compete for the same food and water, and to survive, the strongest fruits drop first, leaving those with few seeds.
Fruit trees may actually start this thinning process earlier in the season by shedding some flowers that weren’t pollinated. You might not notice this, because you expect the flowers to drop. But when you see actual fruits starting to fall, it can be alarming.
Preventing the June Drop is not a good thing. To encourage this normal process, make sure that your fruit trees get plenty of water, but not so much they are sitting in soggy soil. Trees and their fruits will grow best if the immature fruit is thinned slightly. As some fruits don’t naturally thin themselves enough, they need some help from their gardeners. Stone fruits, that don’t have a lot of seeds, like peaches, plums, and nectarines, usually need hand thinning. Oddly, figs and persimmons require hand thinning, but cherry trees seem to be able to hang onto all their fruit without any problems.
Bottom line: June Drop is not just normal; it’s actually good for the trees and helpful to the gardener, too. You will not only get larger fruits, but the branches of your fruit trees won’t be so heavy that they will need to be propped up to prevent them from breaking.
For more information, read my new book on 'The Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees', free to readers of this newsletter.
Until next week, I'll see you at the garden center.
