I'm sure you'll agree our greengage fruit tree is a healthy looking speciman. Perhaps a bit too healthy. It has put on a lot of sappy green growth in the four years it's been planted against our fence.And for the first time this spring it had some blossom. Not much, just a small bunch of about five flowers. After the winds of a couple of weeks ago even that small group had disappeared.
I remembered an elderly lady that visited the garden last year giving us some advice. What to do if a fruit tree won't flower and fruit? Hammer a rusty nail into the trunk. There's your answer! It transpired that she had never done this but had heard on good authority that this worked.
I would never dream of doing that to our tree. But I had the feeling that there was probably some truth behind this gardening tip. Maybe the theory is that it would stress the tree enough to make it think its end was nigh and it needed to reproduce.
I decided to "google" this interesting tip. I came up with some unexpected but interesting information.
Rusty nails seem to be a great topic for garden discussion forums.
• Put rusty nails in your watering can. On the forum there was a comment stating that there is no point as plants cannot absorb iron this way. Perhaps it depends on the acidity of the water...
• Bury some rusty nails under a tree when you plant it. According to some this doesn't work either for the same reason as above. Unless you know differently....
• Copper nails hammered into a trunk in a circle will kill the tree. Said to be true.....
• As for hammering the rusty nail into the tree to make it fruit there seemed to be a suggestion in some quarters that this works.....
So there you have it - good gardening tip or a bit of an Old Wives tale?
Has anyone else come across similar "tips"or found that any of the above work?
I have heard of the rusty nail treatment too and have also heard partial ringing of the bark can do the trick - though I have no personal experience of these drastic treatments.
ReplyDeleteFascinating!
ReplyDeleteMy top old wives' tale - which actually works - is to bury banana skins underneath roses to get rid of black spot.
Wish I had known that one before we planted our "iceberg" climbing rose. In spite of my best efforts to keep it moist at the roots the dreaded blackspot is beginning to appear again this year.
ReplyDeleteIt should still work if you bury some around the roots now - it not only prevents black spot, it also cures it. You do have to keep burying them once every couple of months to keep it completely at bay though.
ReplyDeleteI'm told a spray of one part milk to ten parts water will also get rid of black spot, but I've not tried it on that. It works on powdery mildew.
I'll certainly give that a go. Tried the milk and water. Didn't get it to work but I didn't know how often t should be done.I usually resort to picking the affected leaves of. That doesn't work as the black spot is already in the soil and the rose looks a bit bald! Off to consume some banana. Thanks for the info, juliet.
ReplyDelete