The walnuts are of course the main reason for the popularity of the walnut tree. It is all the more annoying when your own tree bears little or no fruit. But why could that be? In our article we look at this important question in more detail.
Why is my walnut tree not bearing fruit?
A walnut tree does not bear fruit for various reasons: too young, frost damage or lack of pollination. To promote fruit production, you should choose the right location and care for the tree appropriately.
Possible causes of fruit failure
There are several reasons why a walnut tree does not produce a (rich) harvest.
The most important ones at a glance:
- too young age
- Frost Damage
- lack of pollination
Age
A seedling that you grow from a walnut will usually only give you your first harvest after at least ten, more likely 15 to 20, years of existence.
It's a little quicker if it's a refined walnut tree. Then you can often look forward to good returns after just four to six years.
Frost Damage
Walnut trees are generally at risk of late frost. A single late frost can be the cause of the lack of flowers and fruit. Specifically, this means: If cold temperatures occur during the walnut blossom in April/May, it is very likely that there will be no or very few nuts in the fall.
Pollination
Sometimes it happens that pollination does not occur.
To explain: The real walnut (bot. Juglans regia) is monoecious - meaning that the male and female flowers are on one and the same plant. The former usually bloom up to four weeks before their plain white female counterparts. Due to this time delay, the walnut tree is often dependent on cross-pollination in order for the fruits to form.
Note: In principle, there is nothing wrong with the male flowers pollinating the female flowers of the same tree. They just have to meet at a reasonable level of maturity. This means that the time interval between the appearance of the male flowers and the appearance of the female flowers should not be too long. However, you cannot influence this yourself, Mother Nature decides.
Measures to promote fruit development
You can hardly actively counteract the causes described. You only have the opportunity to take generally important measures:
- choose the right location from the start
- Always care for the tree appropriately
