If the cherry blossoms thickly every year, but there are almost no berries, then the problem is not in the tree, but in pollination. In a cold, windless spring, bees do not fly, and their own pollen does not move from flower to flower. But there is a simple agricultural technique that helps even in the longest season. It is called sanding.
The bottom line is that during flowering the crown of the cherry tree is sprinkled with dry river sand. When small grains of sand fall, they hit the flowers, knock out pollen and transfer it to the stigmas of neighboring flowers. The sand is heavy and is not carried away by the wind, so the pollen remains inside the crown and effectively participates in pollination.
This method is especially useful for self-fertile varieties: “Lyubskaya”, “Shokoladnitsa”, “Molodezhnaya”, which can bear fruit without other trees nearby. But it only works if the following conditions are met:
- Sand – dry, clean, river, without clay. It is better to rinse and sift.
- The weather is dry and windless. In rain or dampness, the pollen clumps together and the effect is lost.
- Carry out 4-5 times during the entire flowering period – the pollen ripens gradually.
The author of the Zen channel “Dachnaya Ugodnik Vitaly Dekabrev” (12+) spoke about this, and many gardeners confirmed: in years when there are almost no bees, sanding really gives an increase in yield. Try it and perhaps this summer you will be picking cherries instead of wondering why they fell off again.
