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Causes of hackberry not getting fruit?

10 years ago

Hi,
We planted a hackberry tree around ten years ago to provide food for the birds. It's around fifteen feet tall and it's never gotten any fruit. It gets several hours of sun daily and looks healthy. Does anyone know what could be wrong? Thanks for any ideas.
Anna

Comments (6)

bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
10 years ago
Is it flowering or are you finding seedlings around your property? Both flowers and drupes can be very subtle.... ours never lasted long enough to look anything like the large red-to-purple examples you find googling images of the fruits - but they were there and very viable according to the MANY bird-planted seedlings regularly found around our lot and neighborhood before the mistletoe finally did our two trees in.
onelunalady
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi,
I haven't noticed any flowers or fruit. It's in our yard and I mow often so I probably wouldn't see any seedlings. I'll look closer next year for the flowers and fruit. Thanks for the help!
Anna
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Sue, it's a difficult question for me to answer, Yes, I know that high sustained heat can alter fruit shape but usually that means just an enlarged nipple at the blossom end, not a true heart shape. And yes, seeds were sent to me, actually three different packets from someone who found what he called a possible Orange Minsk Heart. it came from a plant that had the regular beefsteak shaped ones and some that were heart shaped. Tania's link is below at the bottom. Tania says that Andrey told her that the original variety was a blunt heart, but I never saw his post about that and what I got when it was grown out origially by Freda for me here at home, seeds from Andrey, was not a heart. Then there's Prue, which I love, which has fruits of all different shapes on a plant at the same time, saved seeds give the same and it's always been that way, http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Prue Years ago I grew Azoychka several years in a row for seed production and I never saw anything resembling a heart. I recall one person who said that fruit shape could be different if there were alternating temps that were high, then much cooler, which could alter the shape of the fruit due to different rates of growth of fruits, As I said, a very difficult question to answer and my opinion is, what is, is. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Orange Minsk Heart
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wisconsitom
10 years ago
I'm not certain, but maybe hackberry requires two or more trees to set fruit. Even on monoecious plants-those having both "male" and "female" flowers on the same plant, oftentimes the union of pollen from one tree with ovary of that same tree yields no viable seed, ie. fruit. Just a thought.

+oM
bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
10 years ago
Pretty sure hackberry trees are self-fertile, though have read they depend on wind for pollination. Moot point if the tree is not flowering for some reason. The linked blog has some great photos of the flowers at the end of the post.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hackberry flower photos at end of post

This post was edited by bostedo on Fri, Nov 22, 13 at 10:22
dandy_line (Z3b N Cent Mn)
10 years ago
Fifteen feet is not very large for a Hackberry. Maybe it's just too young yet. Keep it watered in summer may help.
claydirt
10 years ago
Hackberry seedlings have distinctive looking cotyledons when they germinate. There is a 'notch' at the end of of each cotyledon. Look for these in the yard under the tree in the spring before you mow.

You may just need to wait several more years, as already mentioned.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hackberry Seedling

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