After buying the land and laying the foundation for a new house, we immediately, in the fall, planted all the fruit trees we wanted to see in our yard. Despite the fact that we are novice gardeners, all of them were accepted, and already in the second year, they are already bearing fruit little by little.
The young apple tree pleased us with 4 apples, cherry trees, pears, and figs too, but the quince even after 3.5 years did not give any fruit. There were lots of flowers in the spring, but all the ovaries fell off on their own within a few weeks.
A neighbor suggested two things to do in this case. The fact is that the ovaries fall when there is little iron in the soil. The first method is to hammer in rebar near the tree or drive in a few nails, but there is a second method, much more effective than the first, which I have used.
The tree needs an iron supply like leaf feeding, and this is done by driving a few small rusty nails into the base of the trunk. I drove two nails into the trunk in March when the hard frosts had passed:
The nails are driven 3 to 5 mm deep to pierce the bark and penetrate the first fibers of the wood with the movement of the sap. You can also do this in the fall, but there is a risk that some of the wood will freeze through the metal and a wound will need to be treated.
It is still best to do this in early spring and remove the nails after harvesting so that the tree has time to heal wounds. As a last resort, the holes can be covered during the winter with garden varnish.
Now our quince tree is still standing with nails in its trunk. And this is the first year in four seasons that he has pleased us with his harvest, although it is small so far.
A dozen fruits so far! Let’s see what will happen next year…
If you have a similar problem, I think it’s worth trying this method. The iron supply is very fast and this method has helped our tree!!! By the way, this foliar feeding is very good for trees suffering from chlorosis (iron deficiency). You can tell by watching the leaves as they lose their green color.
Leaves may turn white, yellow, or brown, and prolonged iron deficiency causes some twigs and shoots to die back.
