Failure to fruit
Failure to fruit
A plant may fail to fruit because of all the reasons listed for failure to flower. If there are no flowers, there can be no fruits. A plant may flower but fail to have fruits. This section covers possible reasons.
One of the most common explanations is lack of proper pollination. Some plants can not pollinate themselves -- they require a plant of the same species but of a different variety for cross-pollination. Two trees of the same variety will not pollinate each other -- they must be different varieties.
Lack of pollination can occur if cold, rainy weather occurs when a plant is in full bloom. Such weather will keep bees from working, thus reducing or preventing pollination and fruit-set.
A frost while a plant is in flower will kill the flowers and prevent fruit-set.
Some plants are dioecious. This means all the flowers on a plant are either male or female. Both a male and a female plant must be present and cross-pollination must occur for the female to produce fruit. Examples of dioecious plants are holly, bittersweet and yew.
