Will your spring flowers turn into bumper fruit crops?
The image is courtesy of Chris Collins
Encouraged by the cold winter and warm spring, the decorative floral display was a joy to experience this year. Cherry Blossom celebration at RHS Garden Whisley showed a run for their money in the Japanese spring! Whether you are growing or fruiting or not, T&M quality control manager Kris Collins shares advice on how to encourage beautiful flowers…
Browse our entire range of fruit trees for more inspiration.
Fruit trees are the best decorative food
Chris’ fruit trees are on track for bumper harvest this season
The image is courtesy of Chris Collins
There are decorative cherries towering over the greenery outside my house. It warns my Morello cherry trees by comparison, and every spring, the white flowers fall like a week of snow. (It’s fine, but it buries my vegetable garden under a blanket of dried petals – worse than falling leaves in autumn!)
Decorative flowers are fleeting and should be enjoyed at the moment, but flowers from fruit trees are full of even more possibilities. My fruit trees will flower as hard as the decorative type this spring, and I want to turn it into a bumper harvest of apple, pear, damson and cherry.
How to encourage flowers to form
“Stella” is British favorite dessert cherry and one of the most beautiful things in the spring
Image: Cherry “Stella” from T&M (©BGP)
At the end of winter, constantly apply a balanced fertilizer to help with early growth and budding. Next, following the flower display, I apply bigger and better as a liquid leaf feed (use a spray bottle on the leaves for faster intake of the leaves). I do this regularly throughout the growing season to help all fruit grow. Leaf feeding throughout the season is especially important for young, newly planted trees to ensure that early fruits are supported and that the plant is weakened in the first season.
For health and vitality, I also apply incredible nutrition and nurturing, a high calcium feed that acts as a tonic to enhance plant health and reduce the risk of bitter pits in apples.
Tips for harvesting bumper fruits this season
This beautiful flower is the predecessor of delicious fruit
The image is courtesy of Chris Collins
Chris’s simple tips for getting the best flowers followed by fruit bumper crops.
Mulch: Apply a layer of storch around the roots of the tree to trap moisture and reduce weed competition. Selective Thinning: Apples naturally drop fruit in June, keeping only what the tree can support. You might want to do this yourself, especially with heavy flower clusters. Crop Protection: Ripe cherries do not hang from the tree for long! I’m determined to get a good crop this year. As soon as the fruit begins to ripen, it will cover the fleece cherry tree. It can cover the entire tree or individual branches.
It’s never too late to plant fruit trees. If you are short on space, you can try growing dwarf fruit trees in a container. I’m really curious to see how your top fruit harvest will turn out this season. Share your results on Facebook or Instagram or email us at pressoffice@thompson-morgan.com.
Kris Collins works as the quality control manager for Thompson & Morgan, ensuring that new and old customers stay up to date with the latest plant development and company news through a wide range of media sources. He trained at Royal Parks in London and spent more than a decade writing for Gardening Publishing in the UK before joining the Thompson & Morgan team.
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