Sorbus blossom disappeared after flowering - no sign of fruit

clematisdorset · July 2023

My sorbus developed blossom but after flowering the stems of the flowers sort of dried up/became brown/vanished. Is this normal? Should there be fruit developing? The leaves are normal and green. Thankyou.

Liriodendron · July 2023

Is it a young tree? Sometimes they can take a few years to settle down and start fruiting. Alternatively, the flowers might not have been pollinated; if the weather was very windy, damaging the flowers, or too cold for bees & flies to be about, they would just drop without forming fruit.

Is it Sorbus aucuparia, the Mountain Ash? If so, it's self-fertile, so the above is likely to be the case. But some other Sorbus are not self-fertile, I believe - you'd need to research that if you have an unusual variety.

clematisdorset · July 2023

Thankyou @Liriodendron, it is quite young, about 3 or 4 years old, it is Autumn Spire, aka Flanrock. I think the weather was mixed, but mostly calm and sunny while flowering. I saw bees and ants around the flowers and now wonder if the ants did something to the flowers.

I forgot to check re self-fertile or not (before buying). I kept waiting to see fruit developing, but the framework sort of disintegrated and vanished.
Do you know when to expect to see fruit? I imagine they should be visible by now, if the tree is going to bear fruit this year?

Liriodendron · July 2023

Hi @clematisdorset - I can't find any site which says anything about Autumn Spire needing a pollinator, which I think means it must be self-fertile. To be honest, I've never noticed when rowan fruit starts to swell. There's a couple of trees along my road to the shops - I'll try to remember to look at them next time I'm passing, and let you know (unless perhaps @Fairygirl can answer the question. She knows quite a lot about rowans, I think).

If it doesn't produce any fruit this year, it may just be its age... or perhaps it was very dry at post-flowering time? If the tree was stressed it would react by aborting its fruit. I don't know about southern England, but certainly here in western Ireland we had a long dry spell during which I was giving my 2-year-planted fruit trees 20 litres of water per week.

Fairygirl · July 2023

Ants don't cause problems - but if they're in abundance, it's usually because they're farming aphids. Those don't normally bother rowans though.
I assume it's in the ground though?
I don't think I've ever watered a rowan here - it would only be done on planting, and you really can't overwater them - even the cultivated varieties. That would only be a problem if they were in ground that never drained. Can you give us more info about where it's sited and what's around it etc?
All the rowans round here are producing berries and they're ripening, although that's mainly the native ones which are very common, but I've got one which was a present from the birds, and it still doesn't have a huge amount of fruit, but it's starting to ripen now. It's been in it's site about 2 or 3 years now, but was behind the shed for years before I moved it. It's probably around 8 years old in total. It's a cashmiriana or possibly a vilmorinii as it has white berries fading from a soft pink.
It does take quite a number of years for them to settle and do well in my experience though, as @Liriodendron says. 3 or 4 years old is nothing in terms of age for the cultivated types.

clematisdorset · July 2023

Thankyou @Liriodendron, I would be interested to know, if you see your local trees developing berries. Yes, it was dry almost all or even all of June I think, which was the post-flowering period., I was watering it daily. Even so, 2 or 3 leaves began to curl up.

Thank you @Fairygirl, that is good to know about the ants. They were all over the flowers.
Yes, it is in well-draining soil, so maybe it became a little bit dry. It is near some paving and is part shaded by other tall shrubs, but is south-facing with about 4.5 hours direct sun a day.

Can you tell me what sort of size the berries are near you at this stage in the year please? I tried looking this up but could not find any images showing berry development.

Do you think birds or insects could have eaten immature berries, before I managed to see them? I am confused as to what has happened. The framework that was where the flowers were has almost disappeared, though a few brown, dead bits of the framework is visible (most has fallen off).

I cannot take photos at present, unfortunately. The good thing is that the leaves look green and healthy, bar a few that curled up earlier.

Autumn Spire is recommended for small spaces, with its fastigiate form. I was impressed at the amount of flowers it issued (at many levels of the tree) but as I bought it last autumn, this is its first year with me. Hopefully the first of many.

Here is a link to it. I believe it was cultivated in Ireland.

https://www.irishgardenplantsociety.com/sorbus-autumn-spire/

Angelicant · July 2023

The same thing has happened to my pear tree this year. We have always had a massive crop and usually end up giving lots away, even on years when the wind has taken the blossom off pretty quickly, which didn't happen this year as the blossom was on for over three weeks.
This year I had one pear and then it just dried up and fell off.
The tree was here when we moved in in 1985 so pretty ancient and established.

Fairygirl · July 2023

The berries are full size, and at the orangey stage, so they'll redden up over the next few weeks, which is pretty standard for this area. August is normally an autumnal month here, so is generally cooler - not a summer month, although last year was different, and very odd.
I think the soil's too dry where you have it. The ants suggest that too. I've never had aphids or ants on any rowan, and ants are generally not in great numbers here. If berries, and foliage/stems are withering and disappearing, it's usually because the tree doesn't have enough moisture to retain them, and fully develop the berries, so it sheds those to save the main tree.
They shouldn't need watered daily if they're getting a proper amount of water, and the soil is draining at a suitable rate. The other shrubs could be taking the bulk of any moisture it's getting.
You may need to consider re siting it, or else adding far more organic matter so that it retains the moisture better. If it's generally healthy, it should manage to recover well enough this autumn/winter, but make sure it has adequate moisture until then - a bucket or two every few days, unless you have proper rainfall that gets in at the base for long enough

Fairygirl · July 2023

I just went and had a look at my rowan 'present' @clematisdorset , and the berries are slightly smaller at this stage than the native ones, but not by much. I'd expect them to catch up within a week or so.

A photo of your tree, once you can get one, will help though. Close up, and from further out, so that we can see the general area it's in and the other planting etc

JennyJ · July 2023

My S. gonngashanica (white berried) has small green berries on it just now. It's only a young plant though, and we did have a whole month without any rain mid-May to mid-June which could have slowed down the development.

Fairygirl · July 2023

I took these earlier @clematisdorset and forgot to add them
This is my native rowan, also a present from the birds.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/oi/g76g0heac3e9.jpg

This is the newer one - sorry the pic isn't great, as the berries are mostly around the top, and the light wasn't great. It'll change as it matures a bit more. It's settled in well considering I had to move it when it was around 7 feet, and was a bit stuck, in between the shed and the fence!

Sorbus blossom disappeared after flowering - no sign of fruit

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