banging on tree trunk

[Keystonepaul]

A friend says his neighbor used to bang hard around the tree trunks of his fruit trees if they were not producing fruit. The old fella said this stimulated the tree to produce fruit. in recent times Ive read a little about root trimming and cutting the bark, both of which I know little about. Anyone know of the rhyme or reason behinding banging on a fruit tree trunk to produce fruit- or is it an old wives tale?

 

[huntall]

I have heard the same thing. Don't know if its true or not but saying it stresses tree out and makes it kick in a natural survival instinct of a fruit or nut tree to try to produce seed for survival purpose. Don't know if that's old tale or true.

 

[yoderjac]

Sure, when a tree is mature and fruit production begins to diminish, stress can change the mode of the tree. All organisms have different strategies and tactics, but a similar goal, to push as much of their genetic matter as far into the future as possible. A tree in great growing conditions maximizes the overall amount of genetic material by growing as large as possible. It ends up with more total fruit production over a lifetime. If a tree is under stress, it can change strategy. If a tree thinks it could die soon, it can divert energy into producing as much fruit now as possible. If a tree really does have a short amount of life remaining, this strategy maximizes the amount of genetic material produced over that limited life span.

The trick is to make a tree "think" it is in danger without actually putting it in jeopardy. Folks use various techniques to accomplish this including scoring.

Thanks,

Jack