Why apples fall from an apple tree before ripening
Content:
It is very frustrating for the fruit grower when the apple starts to fall too early. Unripe fruits are unsuitable for eating and preserving. Below you can find the main reasons that lead to premature fruit fall and ways to help prevent such a problem and save the crop.
Reasons for apple shedding ahead of time
There are many reasons why unripe apples fall off.
Natural process
Almost every gardener knows that only 10% of apple flowers become fruit. It should also be borne in mind that the tree will not "feed" the entire ovary. That is why a slight fall of apples at the beginning of summer should not frighten the owner of the site. Such a phenomenon is considered a normal process for the tree to self-regulate the amount of fruit that it is able to provide nourishment.
Fruits may fall off due to improper watering
Aging trees shed more ovaries than young plants. However, the natural process does not provide for massive fruit fall. If this happens, then the cause of the problem lies elsewhere.
Improper care
It happens that trees that look healthy at first glance still do not please with the harvest. Despite the large number of ovaries, the fruits fall off until fully ripe. Such a nuisance often arises against the background of improper care. The problem of why apples fall from an apple tree before ripening can be formed due to:
- Lack of moisture. If you water the apple trees a little, then the leaf plates will begin to take moisture from the fruits, which will lead to their falling off. Too frequent moistening of the soil also causes premature falling of unripe fruits.
- Excess moisture. Abundant soil moisture provokes a lack of oxygen. The root system of the plant will not be able to provide sufficient nutrition for fruits and foliage.
- Applying too much fertilizing based on nitrogen, urea, humus or manure. If you overfeed the apple tree, the fruit pulp will be too soft and loose. The tree will begin dropping unripe apples. If fruits with loose pulp are found, it is necessary to water the fruit crop with a superphosphate solution as soon as possible. To prepare it, you will need to dilute 50 g of the product in 15 liters of water. For 1 sq. m. of the periosteal circle, 1 bucket of solution is needed.
Before watering fruit trees, you need to take the soil under the crown of the tree and squeeze it in the palm of your hand. If the lump begins to crumble or lose its shape, the tree can be watered. In order for the apple tree to grow and develop normally, it is necessary to water it several times during the growing season: before the beginning of flowering, during the period of apple ovary and until the onset of frost. In this case, the depth of the soaking of the earth should exceed 80 cm.
As a rule, 3 buckets of water are enough for watering an annual plant, and more than 9 buckets for an adult apple tree. If the summer is dry, it is recommended to carry out additional watering at a time when the active growth of fruits begins and in September.
Diseases and pests
Apple trees affected by the moth suffer from fruit rot.This is often the reason why the apple tree sheds the fruits before they ripen. Therefore, it is very important to systematically inspect the garden area. If the ovary falls, cut the apples that have fallen to the ground and examine them. The discovery of wormy fruits indicates the defeat of apples by a caterpillar. In this case, the tree tries to shed the fruit.
When a tree is damaged by a moth, a massive fall of apples begins
To save the apple tree, you need to take care of installing trapping belts. The dead bark is removed from the plant and burned along with the fallen fruits. It is very important to cover the soil under the trees with oilcloth so that the pests remain on the oilcloth after falling, and not in the ground. It is also necessary to treat apple trees with drugs that are designed to combat parasites. Carrying out timely and high-quality processing of trees from diseases and pests will prevent damage to plants and preserve the harvest.
Acidic soil
Acidified soil can also cause unripe fruits to fall off. An apple tree planted in an area with acidic soil does not absorb nutrients well. The root system of a tree cannot consume enough nutrients from the soil. Against this background, slow growth and premature fall of fruits that have not had time to ripen are observed.
To destroy pests, you can spray the trees with "Aktara"
To solve the problem in which an unripe crop begins to fall off en masse, it is necessary to establish a systematic introduction of agrochemicals into the soil, which change the chemical parameters of the earth. To determine whether the acidity of the soil is increased, you should perform a special chemical test or use folk methods, which consist in observing the wild crops present on the site.
Excess fruit
Another reason why the apple tree drops apples that have not had time to ripen is an excess of fruits. With the massive pollination of flowers and the formation of a significant amount of ovary, half of the ripening fruits fall off. Thus, the tree tries to get rid of unnecessary load. A similar problem occurs with young plants. For trees that have reached 5 years of age, the fruits will no longer be able to fall due to an excess of harvest.
Lack of food
The reason for dropping apples can be a deficiency of useful elements. Experienced gardeners recommend systematically applying fertilizers, which contain:
- potassium;
- phosphorus;
- copper;
- magnesium;
- manganese.
If there is a need to solve the problem of why the apples began to crumble from the apple tree, if they are very small, then it is important to feed the trees as soon as possible. The use of complex mineral compositions in this case will make it possible to compensate for the deficiency of trace elements in the tree. It is quite simple to use such drugs. The most important thing is to accurately observe the dosage indicated by the manufacturer in the instructions.
How to save the harvest
Having learned why the apples are falling, the gardener should take action as soon as possible and, if necessary, start treating the plants, which will make it possible to save the harvest.
Pest control
The invasion of the codling moth negatively affects the fruit. Unripe fruits begin to fall off en masse after the caterpillars of the butterflies eat the seed chambers. Affected apples cannot develop normally, so the tree may begin to reject them without waiting for the fruit to finish ripening. Pest larvae provoke fungal infection of trees. To destroy the codling moth, you will need to spray with such preparations as:
- Aktara.
- "Confidor".
- "Decis".
- "Fufanon".
- Iskra-M.
- "Karbofos".
Processing is carried out 14 days after the end of the flowering period. It is during this period that caterpillars are born from eggs laid by butterflies.
You can also use special traps (containers filled with fermented apple juice) suspended from tree branches. This will make it possible to cope with pests and avoid falling off fruits that have not had time to ripen.
Fishing belts attached to the tree trunk and moistened with an insecticide prevent caterpillars from reaching the fruit
A few weeks before the fruit is fully ripe, gardeners recommend treating trees with a biological product of the type:
- Fitoverma.
- "Lepidocide".
- "Bitoxibacillin".
With the onset of autumn, it is advisable to clean off the old bark from the trees and get rid of the pests that are hidden there. The area of the trunk circle is dug up. Gardeners deprived of experience often ask themselves: why do this in the fall. Experts believe that in this way the moth larvae can die during frosts.
Apple tree care
Proper care helps to avoid massive dropping of green apples.
Watering
When moistening the soil in the area of the near-trunk soil, it should be borne in mind that water must penetrate to a depth of 50-80 cm. It is important to water the plant abundantly several weeks before harvesting. In dry summers (especially in June and July), irrigation is carried out every 2 weeks. If dwarf apple trees are planted in the garden, you need to take care of frequent watering (every 7 days), however, the depth of moisture penetration will not exceed 30 cm.This irrigation feature is associated with the superficial location of the root system in dwarf trees.
So that the soil does not have time to dry out between irrigations, short-term contrasting moistening of the tree trunks of apple trees should be carried out
Top dressing
When unripe fruits begin to fly around, it is worth considering how often fertilizers were applied. To avoid problems with massive crop loss, you need to take care of the phased application of top dressing:
- During the beginning of flowering, fertilizers are applied, which contain urea, superphosphate and potassium sulfate.
- It is recommended to apply the nitrogen-phosphorus mixture together with potassium at the moment when the fruits have practically ripened.
- Apple trees are fertilized with a mixture of superphosphate and potassium sulfate after harvest.
The lack of useful elements leads to the fact that the apple tree begins to massively throw off fruits that do not have time to ripen.
Whitewashing of trunks
It is recommended to whitewash the stem of the plants every season during the growing season.
To calculate the feeding rate, you will need to take into account the variety of the fruit tree and its age.
Whitewashing the trunks in the spring months helps to protect the stem from ultraviolet radiation. In autumn, this procedure will help to destroy the pests that live inside the bark. This will contribute to the active development of the tree.
Can I eat early fallen apples?
Apples that have reached ripeness have time to gain the necessary weight and acquire a marketable appearance. Fruits, the fall of which occurred ahead of time, have a tough pulp. It is not recommended to consume them raw. The carrion is often placed in compost pits, but before that it is important to cut the fruit and, if necessary, destroy the caterpillars. Also, from fallen fruits, you can build warm beds for cucumbers.
To prepare compost, you will need to combine fallen apples that have started to rot from:
- peat;
- manure;
- shells of chicken eggs;
- raw fruit scraps;
- cut grass and fallen leaves;
- sawdust and branches.
Rotten carrion apples can be used to fertilize
In the event of a massive fall from the tree of apples that did not have time to ripen, it is important to find out the cause of such a trouble as soon as possible. If the falling of apples is associated with a disease or an invasion of pests, measures should be taken to treat the fruit plant. This is the only way the gardener can save the harvest.
