(Revised from my sister blog: Anna’s Gardening Antics and Musings)

Greetings fellow gardeners! We are experiencing great weather in my area, so I am writing this post on my laptop, in a shady part of my garden. It is so beautiful outside. Nature is a beauty to behold and a true testament of God’s presence.

I had an intriguing conversation yesterday with my great aunt who lives in North Florida. She is the daughter of my late great-grandmother Anna (to whom this blog is dedicated) and lives in the very house my grandmother raised her five daughters in. My grandmothers’ garden is a bona fide confirmation of her love of gardening and is one of my favorite places on earth.

My aunt is having a problem with her persimmon and grapefruit trees. Everyday, young fruit are dropping from her trees. I asked her the basic questions: is there any noticeable damage to the trees such as disease, pest infestation, have they been over-watered or over-fertilized, etc. She answered no to all of them. She mentioned the trees had nice, healthy blooms and high fruit production. But the fruit was dropping. Not all of the fruit, but enough to have her worried. I told her I would look into it. After, a bit of research, I found out about “June Fruit Drop.”

June Fruit Drop is natural process in most fruit trees. The tree produces fruit so it can provide seeds. However, if it produces too many fruit, they will begin to compete against each and tap the tree’s resources; thus leading to smaller, inferior fruit with less seeds. To counteract this, the tree will thin out the crop by dropping some of it’s fruit. It is generally recommended to hand thin fruit trees that produce less seeds such as persimmons, plums, nectarines and figs to add the trees with this process. This process can occur during June, but earlier in southern states.

I have included several links below to give you a little more information about June Fruit Drop:

Royal Horticultural Society

Stark Brothers Nursery