Photo courtesy of UGA
It may not be June, but growers in the cold-hardy citrus region are experiencing June drop, a natural thinning process in which trees lose a lot of their fruit. Growers should not be alarmed about excess pieces of fruit that may be on the ground, says Mary Sutton, University of Georgia (UGA) assistant professor and citrus Extension specialist.
“We are going through June drop now. We are seeing some fruit fall, which is totally normal for citrus, especially when we had pretty heavy flowering. We can expect a lot of that to drop,” says Sutton.
Only 0.5% to 3% of citrus tree flowers will produce fruit that makes it to harvest, she added.
“Especially when we have super heavy blooms like we did this year, the 97% drop looks like a whole lot more than usual. We see drop in a lot of tree crops, and that’s just part of it. You’ll always see a fair amount of drop.”
Sutton noted in the UGA Citrus Blog that depending on the variety, fruits may be anywhere from pea-sized to gumball-sized when they drop. Each fruit is competing for a limited amount of resources. The weaker fruit will fall during June drop, while the stronger fruit will continue to grow and develop.
“If the tree is wanting to thin that fruit off, it is probably for a good reason. We don’t want to stress the tree out by forcing it to carry too much,” Sutton said. “It’s just the tree doing what it needs to do.
“I do think we’re going to see different windows of drop for different varieties. Some of our satsumas seem like they’ve already completed June drop, and others are just starting to drop. It could be based on location, variety, age — all different factors.”
Sutton said she will have a better idea of this year’s crop as buds continue to break, and fruit begins to set.
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