Stopping Trees From Fruiting

[BCMA]

I'm looking to research products that stop trees from fruit production. The information I'm looking for is:

1. What products are available.

2. Contact information (websites/phone numbers) for these products.

3. Testimonies concerning the success of using the products.

Thanks for your help.

 

[treemandan]

Chainsaw, chipper, stump grinder.
It would be a very precise and on-going event. methods are probably more harmful than good.
One way to reduce the ammount of fruit and effectively keep the tree from responding to severe pruning is to reduce the size of the tree over a few years. Less tree, less fruit.
Of course this also plays along with the idea of having a repeat customer heh, heh.
To " band" a tree was to bind the cambium with a cable or strap to slow down growth. Seems like a bi*&^. So does drilling for injections every year.
To get them to stop asking about it give them a price then prune it up real nice for em.

 

[BCMA]

Chainsaw, chipper, stump grinder.
It would be a very precise and on-going event. methods are probably more harmful than good.
One way to reduce the ammount of fruit and effectively keep the tree from responding to severe pruning is to reduce the size of the tree over a few years. Less tree, less fruit.
Of course this also plays along with the idea of having a repeat customer heh, heh.
To " band" a tree was to bind the cambium with a cable or strap to slow down growth. Seems like a bi*&^. So does drilling for injections every year.
To get them to stop asking about it give them a price then prune it up real nice for em.

Thanks for the advice. You are correct in that removing the tree, removing the branches of the tree, or girdling the tree with a cable or a strap will influence the tree not to produce fruit...or live. These are all noble ideas, but not exactly what I had in mind.

I'm thinking more along the lines of a floral inhibitor that you would spray on the tree during bloom to stop the "setting" of the fruit.

P.S. I know you were just kidding.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The only two I know of are Florel (R) and NAA. Both will work for crop thinning, not elimination.

NAA is Naphthalene Acetic Acid works as an early abscission hormone, it is also the active ingredient in Sucker Stopper (R)

I've used NAA on female Honeylocust a number of years ago, spray it onto immature fruit to "thin the crop" I've heard of it used on sweetgum too.

Florel is the floral inhibitor, it stops fruit formation. My problem with it is the short window of efficacy. The latter the application, the more fruit threr is. If you are too early...

The big problem with NAA is that it can cause succulent growth to wither, so you need to be sure that new growth is hardened. the good thing is that most trees fruit on mature wood so a good spray tech can often avoid most of the branch tips.