I do not have experience with blossom set sprays. I'm most interested in trying on pawpaws, which are in their 3rd year of flower buds. Last year I hand pollinated and it looked like they set, then all of the tiny fruits fell off. I'm also curious about persimmons, if my American persimmon tree blooms this year. If that tree blooms, maybe some blossom set will help it hold on to the fruit. I have no evidence for that, this is speculation.
Blossom set spray claims "It’s formulated to promote flowering, improve blossom set and increase yields for many fruits and vegetables. It has proven to work best on Tomatoes, Peppers, Beans, Eggplants, Melons, Okra, Cucumbers, Strawberries, and Grapes, though any vegetable or fruit will benefit." "Its combination of Cytokinin and Kinetin growth hormones promotes flowering and can considerably shorten the time from blossom to harvest" That is from the ad. I realize there is an issue with believing ads and I take it all with a grain of salt. I have never used it and wondered if other forum members have, and what is their experience, does it help, harm, no difference.
.. to work best on Tomatoes, Peppers, Beans, Eggplants, Melons, Okra, Cucumbers, Strawberries, and Grapes..
My first impression is to avoid that because of the adds claim about grapes and no documentation to prove opposite of whats said. GA3 is cited as a fruit promoting on few cultivars of grape, Start of page 2
..and it isn't either of those growth hormones. I admit the study is focused about almonds and the flowering period (no data about June drop) but I think that there are generally too many differences in the versions of chemical structures within the cytokinins and kinetins to expect them to work from veggies to fruit trees.
DanielW said
I do not have experience with blossom set sprays. I'm most interested in trying on pawpaws, which are in their 3rd year of flower buds. Last year I hand pollinated and it looked like they set, then all of the tiny fruits fell off.
Daniel, I'd concentrate on observing the flower blossoms stages of 'ripeness' for the hand pollination exercise. Look inside there; the light green orb in the younger flower is receptive to the pollen generated from the more mature blossoms; those're going to have a 'shaggy' appearance. Collect some in a jar lid or bottle cap (or something appropriate if the wind is blowing). With a cheap, smallish, childrens paintbrush or flux brush maybe, something similar, release some of that pollen from a few of those givers into the container and then visit the other tree and dab a little into some of the receptives.
Forgive if this is already known to you. It took me two years of not paying attention to that kind of detail, to finally look further into it, and then in the third year of hand pollinating to have some reasonable 'success'. I assume I am not alone in that, but I could be wrong
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I'm not sure (not-documented) but it seems to me, those 'little hand'-banana looking bunches of baby fruit, will occur whether or not pollination happens for the most part. They just fall off if not pollinated; if pollinated they start to swell and rise a little bit outward, pretty quickly; enough to be noticeably past a point...
I'd vote no on blossom set sprays for Pawpaw. Don't think the drop is but normal. Don't know nothin' about any off the rest of it.
I read lots about breeding fruit trees. For many (if not all) fruiting trees the last thing to become perfected is the flowers. It may not even be possible this year if last year was your first flowers. My sweet cherry seedlings had a few first time flowers last year but nothing developed after attempting pollination. This year there is not even a flower.
If what you have has a patent number then that's different, lets get it looked up.
In general, I think the tree gradually develops the ability to flower, set, and then hold the fruit. It happens over years.
For Pawpaws, I have found that they will lose their fruit if it is dry weather right when they set fruit. In their native range, it rains a lot in Spring and summer. It will never be as dry as it is here in summer. Mine have lost fruit for that reason. I would water them instead. If you're not setting fruit even to begin, focus on the sequential and complicated times of different varieties of pawpaw flowering, and pollinating other fruit.
John S
PDX OR
Thanks all for the replies. Very helpful information and ideas. I think the first of the flowers should be open in a day or two, then probably spread across a couple of weeks. That way there will be lots of chances to pollenate.
I did do that last year with paintbrush. The yellow pollen is prolific and pretty obvious, and I felt confident I got lots on the sticky stigmas. I transferred back and forth between NC-1 and Sunflower, and a couple of flowers on the smaller Mango. This year, there are many, many flower buds opening on NC-1 and Sunflower, the trees are in the 7-8 foot tall range, and Rebecca's Gold also has a number of flowers. I know they bloomed in 2015 too, but I forget if I tried to pollinate then. I think I did.
I was thinking it could be weather related last year. It's disappointing not to get any fruit, but no cost in continuing to try.
Thanks again. Lots of wisdom here
I'm so fired up! My Wells Pawpaw had never flowered. It's 11 feet tall and 8 years old. I thought it never would. It now has about 10 flowers on it. I pollinated Sunflower, which is self pollinating, but still a small plant. I don't want to set too much fruit on a small tree. I have to wait a day or two for Wells to really open, but it's such a large tree, I might get to taste my first Wells Pawpaw. I selected them because they were the first two that scientists identified as being low in the whatever-is-potentially-harmful-in-pawpaws. Now there are a few more.
John S
PDX OR
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