My tiny potted apple tree was being a bit tardy about the June drop this year, so I decided to snip off the bulk of the fruit anyway. It's been dry, and the pot has suffered. A few fewer apples, I reasoned, would rescue the plant from killing itself fruiting.
The night after I'd got snippy it rained. It rained a lot. The following morning, the tree had visibly perked up, but some of the fruit was showing cracks, like unevenly watered tomatoes. I'd never even heard of this happening to an apple tree, though apparently it is a thing.
The cracks began to darken and widen and spread across the whole fruit tree. Now pretty much the entire crop is showing damage.
Had the tree been expecting twice as much fruit to pump the water into? Either way the results are brutal. I'm steadily thinning the fruit as they rot off, while the remaining few unblemished fruits seem to be dropping anyway; maybe the tree had already decided to stop supplying them. The slugs and snails are stepping in to finish the carnage.
Uneven watering is of course the culprit. We've had challenging dry spells this year, and there's only so much you can do with a hose. The compost bakes and the flow-through damages the soil. Plants settle into panic mode, and react unpredictably to water, sometimes refusing it, sometimes overtranspiring.
Of course, growing an apple tree in a flowerpot is a ridiculous idea.
The night after I'd got snippy it rained. It rained a lot. The following morning, the tree had visibly perked up, but some of the fruit was showing cracks, like unevenly watered tomatoes. I'd never even heard of this happening to an apple tree, though apparently it is a thing.
The cracks began to darken and widen and spread across the whole fruit tree. Now pretty much the entire crop is showing damage.
Had the tree been expecting twice as much fruit to pump the water into? Either way the results are brutal. I'm steadily thinning the fruit as they rot off, while the remaining few unblemished fruits seem to be dropping anyway; maybe the tree had already decided to stop supplying them. The slugs and snails are stepping in to finish the carnage.
Uneven watering is of course the culprit. We've had challenging dry spells this year, and there's only so much you can do with a hose. The compost bakes and the flow-through damages the soil. Plants settle into panic mode, and react unpredictably to water, sometimes refusing it, sometimes overtranspiring.
Of course, growing an apple tree in a flowerpot is a ridiculous idea.
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