Did you by any chance hit it with a high-nitrogen fertilizer?

Carol in Jackonville

I don't think so. Every now and again I throw a handful of Vigoro 6-4-6 citrus and avocado fertilizer on it. That's about it.

Healthy fruit trees may flower and create many sets but the tree knows if it has the energy to support all that fruit. I planted a black cepote a few years ago. Healthy young tree. Grows and flowers each year. No fruit yet. Somehow or another the trees know if they are big enough to support the fruit. After a bumper year on my avocado, the following year was not enough for the squirrels share. But this year a lot of fruit with hundreds of little ones on the ground. Mature tree, 40 plus feet, aborted a lot of fruit. Still a nice yield though. Normal.

I wonder if the tree may boycott the idea of being potted.

Good luck

I consider my starfruit (Carimbola) tree a terrorist. It grows beyond belief and produces so much fruit that I must constantly pick it up from the ground. I compost the fruit which I don't like to eat. Many days I pick a 5 gal bucket full. No matter how much we cut it back it grows again. On the other hand, it is a beautiful tree, great shade, and with pretty fruit. It drops fruit and leaves on my roof and gutters. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't plant one.
theo

I wouldn't be concerned if some of the fruit were staying on. It's that every single one of them has been aborted. Last time it flowered it set a lot of fruit that grew to maturity. Of course, that was a fall flowering that led to fruit in the winter. This is a summer flowering, which maybe doesn't set fruit as well?

The trees are known to be prolific producers even in pots. When I got it, it had several full size fruit on it and it was in a 3 gallon pot! So I don't think it's upset about that.

slopfrog - That type of fertilizer is only for plants in the ground! A better fertilizer for your potted tree would be Osmacote or Dynamite or any quality brand of time released fertilizer for potted plants. I would change a lot of the soil and put in fertilizer designed for potted flowers/trees.

Lucky you for having blooms already. My starfruit are still putting on a lot of leaf growth to repair winter damage.

Christine

Theoj, have you tried making wine with your starfruit? Or sell them as I do. It's really great to get "too much" fruit from any tree.