Is there a way to intentionally cause fruit drop? I have 100+ grapefruit trees that I'm gradually top working, but in the mean time I don't want the grapefruit and it keeps the varmints well fed and reproducing. I'd like to only have fruit production on the trees that I have top worked.


Thanks,
Phillip

On the Internet look under the phrases ...chemical fruit thinning, or ethylene fruit thinning - Millet

Thanks. That'll give me a place to look. It looks like most sites look like say you can thin to 30%, but not necessarily all without "excessive" leaf loss. I'm also curious if there's a way to spray during bloom to prevent fruit set.

BTW, I drove by UC Riverside today and thought about y'all on this group.

Phillip

Maybe reduce watering to survival amounts only during bloom/set and pray for wind? Maybe bamboo leaf rake the drying blooms/fruitlets after starving of water? Stressed trees will not set much fruit. Anything that causes fruit drop will likely not be great for the tree as a whole, I would guess...

What is eating the grapefruit? Rats, rabbits, birds? Feral monkeys? just curious... Maybe you could donate the excess to a food bank. Some will come and pick free fruit. Or you could advertise free pick-yer-own on craigslist or a local harvest type site.

Highly productive grapefruit trees can be a blessing and a curse (esp. the "white" varieties).

B "who loves grapefruit and hates waste" C