I know a lot of you go through this, and wanted to give you all a glimmer of hope. I'm not suggesting that this would work with other fruit trees, but it can't hurt.

I have two carambola (A Kari and a Bell) who bore lots of fruit in pots and have been in the ground 8 months or so who refuse to produce flowers or ultimately fruit. I've tried everything I read about without success till now... it's been on the tip of my nose all the time.

Was it water? Fertilizer? Soil? Pruning? Nice talk? Calssical music? No, nope, none of these. Being from an ethnic background where threats work against innocent shopkeepers I thought I'd try that. No not threaten shopkeepers, threaten the trees.

With my GF in hand to defend them I did the "listen you dirty rats" routine and dragged a little 3' tall Kajang carambola out with a few flowers on it and said "the one that gives me fruit gets to stay in the ground, the other... and I mad a sawing motion at the base of one and said, "I hope you get the message". Then told Kajang to get ready to go into the ground.

Well, let me tell you, the little Kajang literally ERUPTED with new flowers over night in anticipation, and the Kari erupted with a couple of dozen flowers in two more days.

The Bell is defiant to the end, how sad.

So there you have it, the Sopranos routine. Use it or not, but bear in mind YOUR wife or GF should not be there when you do it, mine was upset with me! :-)

Gary