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  • Why is there no fruit on my winter cherry?

    Created by Sinead on September 4, 2017 at 7:27 am

    Can you please help me? I have a winter cherry, which I have kept successfully (other than the problem I now have) for three years.

    The foliage is healthy, the flowers bloom profusely, but droop off before the berries can form. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong? I mist the plant regularly, it stands in good strong daylight and I make sure the pot never dries out.

    There have been many flowers this year, and it is so disappointing that none of them have gone on to form berries When I look closely, the little orange bit which should form the berry looks to be dry and wrinkly.

    Grateful for your advice.

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  • September 12, 2017 at 6:13 am #252220

    Eric Vinje
    Keymaster

    Hello Sinead!

    There are a lot of different types of winter cherry trees, so I won’t be able to fully help you, but I can give you a few suggestion.

    First off, I recommend using clay pebbles in a saucer with water to set your cherry tree on top of as a form of humidity rather than misting it so often as that can encourage disease problems. If your foliage isn’t showing symptoms (wilting, scabs, moldy coatings, rusts, blotches or rotted tissue), you’re probably still in the clear.

    Another suggestion would be to hand pollinate your winter cherry as most types can’t pollinate themselves. If you don’t do this, it won’t be able to produce fruit, hence why there are none. You can do this by simply gently rubbing a q-tip on each blossom and mixing it with another. Simple, but important.

    Hope this helps!

    September 13, 2017 at 1:34 am #252312

    Sinead
    Member

    Thank you very much, I appreciate your response.

    I will try to pollinate first and see if I have any luck. The plant is extremely healthy in other respects indeed, I have had this for several years now. There is one berry sitting there alone amid masses of greenery!! I have long since lost the tab which describes the species and hadn’t realised there were so many different types.

    I will follow your suggestions and keep my fingers crossed.

    Sinead

    September 13, 2017 at 1:54 am #252313

    Sinead
    Member

    PS. Will pollinating prevent the flowers from falling, and could you please be kind enough to tell me how often I should feed with maybe Baby Bio? Perhaps I might have overdone the feeds in the past and wonder if this may have caused problems?

    Thank you for your further guidance.

    Sinead

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