Hello, Charles from American Life 365. In this video, I will share with you how to sweeten your tree to produce sweeter fruits.
Look at my mandarin tree. There are so many mandarins on the tree. They are not only beautiful, but also very sweet. Very sweet. When I bought this tree 6 years ago, it had some green mandarins on the saplings. Basically, tree producers want the trees to have some fruit on the saplings, because people tend to buy trees with fruit. Not only does this tree look beautiful, but people believe that this tree will bear fruit after purchase. If you believe in this trick, you will most likely be very disappointed. After I bought this small tree and planted it, the mandarins on the tree ripen a few months later. We were very exited to taste the ripen mandarins. Unfortunately, we were disappointed, the mandarins were sour and a bit of bitter. Because the seller provided the guarantee of sweetness and livability in the first year, I dug it out and tried to return the tree to the seller for a refund. The seller refused my return because we transplanted this tree to the ground, which is ridiculous. How could we buy a tree without transplanting it to the ground? I felt the seller tried to find an excuse to refuse any refund. I brought the dear and pity tree back and planted it back to its original place. I stared at it and asked: "Can you change yourself a sweeter? Bear sweeter mandarins? ". Her branches nodded repeatedly, seeming to tell me that I should ask myself.
After the mandarin trees in the backyard was planted , I started feeding the tree with good things. The so-called good things are organic homemade compost made from dead leaves, peels and leftovers. Then the tree bloomed abundant of flowers and bore some orange. I picked a ripen mandarin, which tasted sweeter than the previous the mandarin I tasted in its first year. This is a reward for my good work. I found that this tree has become a sweeter fruit tree. Since then, i value her more and fed her more homemade organic compost, especially potash and phosphate enhanced compost.
My story tells me that it is possible to make a tree sweeter which starts to produce sweeter fruit from sour and tart fruits. the first thing to sweeten a tree is to add more potassium or phosphorus. Potassium helps trees use water and drought resistance, and manages the synthesis of plant sugars to produce sweet fruits. Potassium helps plants improve their ability to absorb nitrogen from the soil and convert nitrogen into amino acids and ultimately protein. There will be more sugar in fruit. Finally, sweets make growers happy. Phosphorus helps plants absorb sunlight to improve photosynthesis and ultimately promote growth and reproduction. In short, add more organic fertilizer, especially wood ash. Mainly carbon and minerals.
If you have a fruit tree, you can feel different sweetness from different sides of the tree. The fruit on the side facing the sun is sweeter than the back side facing the sun. In fact, this is because the stronger the light, the more photosynthesis, the more protein, and the sweeter. Exposure to more sunlight will also warm the fruit or leaves, and the heat on the fruit will also accelerate photosynthesis to produce more protein. The fruit will become sweeter.
The unfavorable influence on fruit sweetness is watering and nitrogen fertilizer management during the flowering and fruiting period. Excessive amounts of nitrogen and water must be given to encourage trees to thrive. In addition, less sunlight and wind are not conducive to the sweetness of the fruit. Sometimes, wind is as important as sunlight.
My question now is how to get organic compost? I have some videos about homemade composting. You can check it from the link I put in the video comment. If you don’t have homemade organic compost, you can buy something close to homemade organic compost. Buy some fertilizers, minerals, or fertilizers with added phosphorus or potassium. Epsom salt is also helpful because it is rich in magnesium. Magnesium can help trees consume phosphorus and potassium. Before microbes consume it for the first time, minerals are not food that plants can consume. So organic is definitely better than raw minerals or non-organic. But at least salt or minerals provide more opportunities to become plant foods.
Oh, keep naming in mind. Potassium and potash fertilizer are exchangeable, as are phosphorus and phosphate. They have the same meaning. Don't get confused.
In short, potassium and phosphorus, sunlight and heat play a vital role in the sweetness of fruits. Thank you for your sweetness to your tree, and in turn your tree will reward you with sweetness.
Hope this video can help people grow more sweeter fruits.