Last summer
someone wondered aloud to me that there were not many wild flowers. This year,
walking through the forest and wild meadow on the way to the orchard
flowers are exploding from the ground, trumpeting life and the air buzzes with insects. I knew that 2016’s drought was a
heavy one for our area, but the stark contrast with 2017’s wet spring is
shocking.
My fruit
trees are growing like fireworks, currant bushes I planted as twigs in May have
quadrupled in size. The blueberries I planted this spring have already outgrown
the ones that struggled to survive the dry summer. The grass last July was brown and flattened against the earth, now it makes a solid green curtain
reaching my navel. It has turned the orchard into a maze where I have to guess
the general direction of my Honeyberries to find them. The grass is taller than
most of my berry bushes, but they don’t seem to mind. They all have a small radius where I have weeded and mulched the 'root zone'. After all the rain we’ve
been having and my application of manure last week the orchard is singing. A
monarch butterfly flutters past, floating above the tall grasses and flowering
milkweed.
This week I’d
like to address a question sent by a reader asking why their apple tree did not
flower this year. I commonly get asked about this sort of fruit tree behaviour.
The alternate version of the same question is: Why does my fruit tree only bear fruit every other year?
Trees run
on a two year cycle when it comes to flowering. Trees want to produce fruit and
seeds in order to create offspring. Imagine this year your tree is not producing
any fruit. It is going to put a lot of energy into creating flower buds which
will be able to produce fruit next year. Fast forward to next year, the tree is
loaded with pollinated flowers and it is using all of its energy to ripen its
immense load of fruit. This means that during this second year the tree has not
been able to invest energy into next year’s flower buds. Year three we are back
to a tree with no fruit.
In
commercial orchards farmers control the fruit set by spraying the
trees (in both conventional and organic agriculture this is a permitted
practice, though the chemicals and techniques differ) in order to
make them drop two thirds of the potential fruit load. This means the apples,
or peaches, or plums that are left on the tree will ripen bigger and more
flavourful. At the home scale you can
thin fruit by hand and ladder. My second year working in agriculture I spent a
few days in spring thinning fruitlets on peach trees in a greenhouse in
northern Ontario. It is a slow process,
but it improves fruit quality and ensures a harvest for next year.
Once trees
have gotten used to biennial bearing, it is very difficult to restore them to
annual bearing. As far as I am aware it is not impossible, but the ease at
which you can bring those trees back is largely affected by how long they have
been allowed to bear fruit in this way.
Your berries won't need thinning, they are pretty good at
self-regulating. You should thin your grapes to improve flavour. The amount of grapes you leave on depends on the vineyard, the use for
the grapes (wine or fresh eating), and the climate. Go with your gut, trust your instinct. Often when
it comes to plants the power of observation will lead you to the right place.
Hoping you
enjoyed a lovely summer solstice, have a lovely week.
-E.V.
