Question 1

Why is my fruit tree not producing fruit?

Accepted Answer

Most commonly **pollination**, and the usual culprit is a factor most people do not know applies.

**Pollination groups.** Many fruit trees — particularly apples, pears, plums and cherries — are **not self-fertile**. They need pollen from a **different variety** of the same fruit, flowering at the same time. Nurseries assign varieties to numbered **pollination groups** based on flowering period, and a suitable partner must be in the same group or an adjacent one. A single apple tree in a garden with no compatible tree within bee range will flower beautifully and set almost nothing.

Some varieties are **self-fertile** and crop alone. A few are **triploid** — including Bramley — and are poor pollinators themselves, requiring **two** other compatible varieties nearby.

**Other common causes:**

**Age.** Trees need to reach maturity. Depending on rootstock and species this can be two to six years or more, and nothing will hurry it.

**Frost at blossom time.** A late frost destroys the flowers or developing fruitlets. This is the standard explanation for a tree that fruited last year and not this one, and it affects whole regions in a bad spring.

**No pollinators active.** Cold, wet or windy weather during the flowering window keeps bees grounded even without frost.

**Too much nitrogen.** High-nitrogen feed, or a tree growing in a lawn that gets lawn fertiliser, produces vigorous leafy growth at the expense of flowers and fruit. Use a high-potash feed instead.

**Incorrect pruning.** Some fruit is borne on older wood and some on the previous season's growth. Pruning at the wrong time or removing the wrong wood cuts off the fruiting buds.

**Biennial bearing.** Some varieties crop heavily one year and barely at all the next. Thinning fruit in a heavy year helps break the cycle.

**Drought during fruit set** causes the tree to drop fruitlets.

Question 2

What is a pollination group, and do I need two fruit trees?

Accepted Answer

A grouping indicating when a variety flowers, used to work out which fruit trees can pollinate each other — and for many fruits the answer is yes, you need a compatible partner, though not always one

Question 3

Why does my fruit tree crop heavily one year and not the next?

Accepted Answer

It is biennial bearing — a self-reinforcing cycle in which a heavy crop in one year prevents flower bud formation for the next, producing alternating years of glut and almost nothing. The mechanism.

Question 4

Why is my courgette plant flowering but not producing fruit?

Accepted Answer

Usually pollination, and often simply timing. Courgettes, along with cucumbers, pumpkins and squash, carry separate male and female flowers on the same plant, and both need to be open at once for

Question 5

What is a rootstock and why does it matter for fruit trees?

Accepted Answer

A rootstock is the root system a fruit tree is grafted onto. The scion — the variety you actually want, such as a Cox or a Bramley — is joined to it, and the rootstock determines much of how the tree

Question 6

What are the best fruit trees for small gardens?

Accepted Answer

For small gardens, consider dwarf apple, columnar trees, figs, dwarf peaches, and citrus trees. These options maximize yield while minimizing space.

Question 7

How does pollination actually work?

Accepted Answer

Pollen has to physically reach the stigma of a compatible flower, germinate, and grow a tube down to the ovule — and almost everything about how a flower looks and smells is an adaptation to getting

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