stella cherry drops fruit while green

a stella cherry in sunny location, vanc. island, 4-6 yrs old, using dormant oil with fungicide x1or2 each winter, produces nice looking cherries which become lighter green colour over approx 2 wks.,--and all drop before ripening!!?? Tree is fertilized with 686 each yr. does anyone know what i can do to solve this problem? thanksvm pjrh

 

I bet searching "cherry fruit drop" or a similar phrase might produce some instructive results.

 

Even though Stella’s are self-fruitful I still would
like to have another sweet Cherry close by.

Unless an insect is causing the premature fruit
drop there are some other reasons why this may
be happening. Some people will feel that our
underwatering and overwatering can cause the
tree to slough off its fruit but we generally do
not see the whole crop fall off the tree all at
once. Stella’s here will slough off some of
their fruit to expend more energy to the rest
of the fruit on the tree. It is the trees mechanism
for determining which and how much fruit it
wants to have. Some trees will sense that they
have too much fruit set on the tree and will
selectively thin themselves.

One thing to keep in mind is that Cherries love
Calcium. For many years here the main fertilizer
for production sweet Cherries was Calcium nitrate.
If we give the trees ample Calcium it does not seem
to matter as much whether we overwater or under
water the tree, as much more of the fruit will stay
on the tree with ground based applied Calcium.
We found the same was true with certain Apples
grown here as well, especially on the old, standard,
pre-Emla rootstock, Red and Golden Delicious and
Pippins.

Give the tree ample water during the growing
season, apply some Calcium, anywhere from a
10-30%, every other year for the 30% where
you are, to the tree in late Winter, have the rains
water it in for you and then wait a few years for
the tree to get up to 8-10 years old and then you
should have some nice crops. Even better crops
if you have another sweet Cherry nearby.

Jim

 

a stella cherry in sunny location, vanc. island, 4-6 yrs old, using dormant oil with fungicide x1or2 each winter, produces nice looking cherries which become lighter green colour over approx 2 wks.,--and all drop before ripening!!?? Tree is fertilized with 686 each yr. does anyone know what i can do to solve this problem? thanksvm pjrh[/QUOTE]

Response: This may be due to the grub from the Plum Circulio beatle. Look for a small crescent shape mark on the fruit. This grub will cause stone fruits to drop prematurely.