I have two trees on my new allotment, a cherry and a plum. Neither had any fruit this year.
The plot next to ours has a cherry tree just like ours that had really tasty cherries (sour but nice) this year but ours had no fruit. Our tree is maybe 7 or 8 feet high. There is a raspberry bush at the base of it and a lot of weeds. Other than clearing out the weeds, what can I do to give it a better chance of fruiting next year? Should I take the raspberry bush away? Should i prune it and if so, how?
The plum tree is smaller, maybe 5 feet high and it looked like ants were on it a month ago but no signs of them now. We have weeded around the tree, (weeds were half as high as the tree!) is there anything else we can do?
Also, any tips for weeding around trees or bushes or rhubarb? I am scared I might hurt the roots of the plant I want to keep but need to dig out the couch.
Hoping someone knows more than me on this one!
If it's rhubarb, you can lift the roots as you dig. Or you could use black plastic; look for bulges in spring where the shoots are, and just cut holes for them. Raspberries can just be lifted as you dig, and replanted. As for the trees, take a piece of black plastic about six feet across, cut a hole in the middle, with a slot connecting it to the edge, and put it round the tree.
I'm not sure about the black plastic bit. The roots need water and air, I have not seen anyone doing the same to their trees unless they aim to suffocate them together with weeds.
Did your trees flower and produced no fruit or didn't they flower at all?
If they didn't flower at all - possible reasons:
may be they are still a bit young or were planted recently, need a bit of time to establish.
Your neighbour has a different rootstock, plants on dwarf rootstock start fruiting earlier than those on semidwarf. Water the young trees and feed them (now with Super Phosphate), but it's a waiting game more than anything.
If the trees flowered but no fruit was set- attracting more bees to the allotment, watering regularly might help.
They sell grease bands and grease sprays against moth and ants, not cheap, but I think it helps. I would remove rhubarb and raspberry, plant nasturtiums (bush, not climbing) instead.
The trees didn't flower this year at all.
I know they weren't planted very recently because no one used the allotment for 3-5 years.
Thank for the help.
Bother as as I read down I was hoping to hear they did flower :(-never mind I`ll still go with my first thoughts. Weeds certainly can rob trees but I also looked up your profile.
I wonder if it is was cold at a critical time?-it could be the varities you have come into bud a bit too early. Try wrapping some fleece around them when/if the temperature drops-they are not so large as to make it impossible.