I have some juvenile plants: a longan, an avocado, a tomato, a beans, a chili, oranges, but none of them bear any fruits. Especially the longan is quite big, 120 cm tall and some branches, for avocado and the rest its about 40cm. I just wonder how to make them bear fruits faster though I grew all of them from seeds. So far I only use water from tap, or rain, because its on the outdoor with some roof to avoid heavy rain or my aquarium water. I have heard than if we bought fruit plants from a gardener which were not grown from seeds perhaps grafted and stuff I am not sure, it bears fruits much faster.
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1Tomato, bean, and chili pepper plants are annuals. If they don't produce flowers and more this season, they never will. Compost those.– Yosef BaskinCommented Jan 17 at 15:12
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40cm for an avocado is TINY, and avos grown from seed typically take 10+ years to fruit - if at all. (If grown from a cutting you can get this down to 3-5 years and ensure fruit if the parent plant fruits).– davidgoCommented Jan 18 at 10:37
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1Where are you (or what Hardiness zone are you in), How much sun do the plants get and how long have you been growing for?– davidgoCommented Jan 18 at 10:40
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@YosefBaskin chillies are normally grown as annuals (and it's in the name of the main species, capsicum anuum) but they're actually tender perennials. Overwintering is a good way to get an early crop the next year, and my Aji Limon (capsicum baccatum) are now on their 3rd year, doing better than ever. Even tomatoes can survive a winter indoors and fruit again - we had some do that in the office in my old job.– Chris HCommented Jan 23 at 21:33
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@chrisH You misunderstood me. Because short-lived annuals and perennials produce within one season, there is no waiting for years for fruit, even grown from seed. If you say chili is perennial, I believe you.– Yosef BaskinCommented Jan 23 at 22:03
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2 Answers
Beans, Chillis and Tomatos should yield fruit in 2-6 months of decent weather. Beans are likely more tolerant but Chillis and Tomatos will want a minimum of 6 hours full sunlight per day, and temperatures above 20c (Chillis want even higher temps then tomatos - ideally above 25c) - A rule of thumb - 1% more light = 1% more growth! Be sure that the plants have fertilizer (particularly Potassium - ie K in NPK). Also make sure the plants are not root bound.
Tomatos/Chillis/Beans purchased as seedlings likely have a 4-8 week start on tomato grown from seed [ this is somewhat dependent on temperature and light levels though ]
Aquarium water is good for plants - google Aquaponics (like Hydroponics but using water from aquariums to nourish the plants). I'm sure regular tap water is OK, but yes, water without chlorine is likely preferable.
Avocados grown from seed are probably a lost cause. IF they ever fruit it will likely take 10-15 years and the fruit could be quite different from the fruit the seed came from.
Oranges grown from seed will take years to grow as well - 3-6 years - and again the fruit you will get will be almost certainly be different from the parent. (Avocados and Citrus fruit are typically grafted for this reason)
Grafted plants typically grow a lot faster - simplistically speaking - apparently they take their age from the age of the plant they were grafted from. They also grow to be the same as the plant the scion (cutting) was taken from.
Fruiting in plants depends on factors like cellular age of plant part (most important factor to consider) chill hours, nutrition and hormonal control.
At times you can't make a plant age faster as it's cells aren't old enough to be able to reproduce. Just like humans and animals,plants too need to attain a certain cellular age of maturity.
Hormones like cytokinin & gibberellins, and can help you speeding the process up a little bit but not much. Other chemicals like Paclobutrazol and Hydrogen cyanamide can help speed up plant metabolism, but here's the catch : A slight more dosage than recommended for your plant type can prove fatal and/ or even set you back a few years (It's not worth it, is it?)
Finally here's what you can do the best: Have patience, wait for one or few of your plants to flower, and when one or few of them attain that age of maturity, clone them with air-layering. Air layering isn't sexual reproduction. So plants created by it are exact clone of its parents. Also, the plants created by air-layering has a cellular age approximately same as the parent plant. It works almost every time on almost every plant and is very easy to perform- just scratch the bark of your plant and scrape of entirely its cambium (the greenish yellow layer) and cover it with a bag containing soil. That's it.
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1Great post - but 1 correction (or question if I'm wrong). You talk about exposing the Cambrium when doing air layering. I'm preparing to do air layering on an Avocado plant, but I understood that the Cambrium should be removed (I think your link actually says the same thing)– davidgoCommented Jan 17 at 20:12
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@davidgo I don't quite get what you're trying to convey. Would you rephrase please if possible? Also, I think you're confusing the bark with cambium. The two are different. When you remove or chisel the bark, you expose cambium to open air or to substrate/ soil. Cambium is one of the core tissue layer and if you are able to remove it the plant won't grow roots in the air-layer. Cambium itself has the cells and meristematic tissue which can then turn into roots. Here's for your further reading: allabouttrees.com/anatomy-of-a-tree– JayparthCommented Jan 18 at 6:15
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1@Jaypath - yes, I understand that the Cambrium is not bark and contains the meristematic tissue - and initially believed as you do - but in reading up on how to do air layering almost all sites say to REMOVE the Cambrium - eg epicgardening.com/air-layering askgardening.com/why-air-layering-fails hgic.clemson.edu/hot-topic/air-layering blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/clayco/2018/02/20/… garden.org/ideas/view/drdawg/2237/Air-Layering ). Disclaimer - I have not yet done air layering myself!– davidgoCommented Jan 18 at 10:17
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2@Jaypath I think the idea is to sever the end (scion?) of the tree from the rest of the tree like you would if you were going a cutting, except leaving the xylem so that the severed end can still get water. I also have read that leaving the cambrium on will cause a callousing causing problems with the root formation - and that roots will form from between the cut and uncut area.– davidgoCommented Jan 18 at 10:24
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1Your first video link specifically says and shows cambrium being fully removed at 5:10. (and the howto you linked says to remove cambrium layer as point 6) Do you have any links to ucla vids or other support for your assertion of leaving the cambrium layer- My Google foo is weak.– davidgoCommented Jan 18 at 19:34