Maybe 3 fruit from the first flowering.
The two trees planted by my grandfather -- Hipolitho Joao Furtado, in the property, probably over 100 years ago, have lost all sense of the seasons with climate change. I guess most fruit trees have it in their DNA, as to when to flower and when to fruit.
I noticed them flowering the first time in November/December of 2020 and what a rash of flowers on both trees. Ah ha! I thought, never mind it’s the wrong season, but we will get lots of fruit. How utterly wrong I was. That was NOT the season for the flowers, which need to be pollinated by bees, butterflies and mosquitoes. So most of the flowers fell off and just made a huge mess on the cobbles below, staining them with ‘deek.’ Plus we humans are great interferers and so the garden is regularly gassed with fogging machines, to get rid of all insects. The circle of life be damned, we and our precious blood need to live!
Then came another round of flowers in January. Lots and lots of flowers again and I thought, “ wow! Lots of fruit this round hopefully.” Not a hope! Since again, where were the pollinators and there was a sudden squall of rain, which finished all the flowers. Thick carpets of unpollinated flowers were swept up and thrown into the compost heap. The trees had wasted their energy on flowers which were never to fruit.
I was devastated. Absolutely no fruit I thought staring at the leafy branches from one of the empty flats in the building. Then suddenly I saw two sizes of fruit. Maybe just 3 or 4 fruit, which were fist sized and the same pitiful number of smaller fruit. Be grateful for small mercies. But I thought what if they never grew bigger and never had a chance to grow to their full size? It’s common in fruit trees to have lots of fruit fall off and go to waste. If these 4 or 5 fell off there would be nothing.
Then I went to water the pots in the empty flat today and stared at the branches. They had begun to sprout hundreds of flowers, yet again. REALLY??? I thought? This is the correct season and maybe there was hope yet, for a crop. But my scientist friends say -- it’s NOT the quantity of flowers-- they need to be pollinated. If we are gassing the insects, what hope did they have to turn into fruit?
The third flowering
Like one brilliant sibling said -- go out and buy your fruit.wonder where the person grew up as it’s not an acceptable answer for all of us who grew in this property. I guess there is no joy found in growing your own fruit any more like my Dad and Grandpa did. We have a generation who have no concept of the circle of life and it makes me feel fulfilled when I am able to convert a few of the hundreds of students I teach to--- Respect Nature and she will respect and give you generously in return.
Hoskote our Shangrila
Lucky we don't depend on these fruit at all. We grow our own graft trees and get hundreds of fruit from our own farm which thankfully has plenty of bees and insects to pollinate the flowers.
