Q. I have a 25-year-old fruitless cherry plum
tree in my backyard. It is a beautiful tree, and has
grown wonderfully through the years, however it has not been fruitless. Some
years have had more fruit than others, but the last few years it has been
covered, with tons of fruit, making a real mess and attracting ants and rats. I was told that there is a spray that will
stop it from bearing fruit. I found something called Florel, which you apparently spray on
with a hose, at the perfect time between mid and full bloom in the spring. Will this work? Will it hurt bees?
A. You did some good investigating. It must be applied when it is flowering. It is safe to use around
honeybees and other pollinators that might be present during the flowering time.
For any of these “fruit
eliminator sprays” it is important that the flowers are open so the spray can
reach inside the open flowers and cause the ovary to abort.
Yes, Florel will
work. It is best to spray when the flowers are starting to open (20% of the
flowers are open) and repeat the spray when the first flowers that open are
shedding their petals (80% of the flowers are open). Flowering can take two to
three weeks for all of the flowers finish. The first flowers
to open are those in the warmest parts of the tree (usually south, west and
tops of trees) and the last to open are on the north side and those in the shade. Follow the label directions for mixing the
spray with water. It won’t get all the fruit 100% but most of it.
It is sometimes called flowering plum and it is a fruit
tree. It has been selected as an ornamental because of its beauty. In the fruit tree
industry it is sometimes used as a rootstock for fruiting plums and peaches and called
Myrobalan plum or just plain old Myro. The fruit has wonderful flavor, very
tart but full of sugar and makes a wonderful jam or jelly.