If your fruit tree isn’t fruiting, it might need a good scare to get started!

I shared the story of Eddy and how he threatened his avocado seedling some years ago – getting it to fruit!

I repeated the story in my popular presentation 21 Amazing Trees You Can Grow from Seed.

In a recent comment below that video, Felicity writes:

scare a fruit tree

“That’s a crazy story about your friend in Puerto Rico, about 10 years ago I heard a similar story. I think it’s an Arabia/Middle East region method, they have this custom where if a tree will not produce fruit, they threaten it. You are supposed to go up to the tree with a friend, and talk about how angry you are that the tree will not produce fruit, and how you are going to cut it down. You bring along a knife or some other sharp object with you, and as you tell your friend that you are going to cut the tree down because it does not give you any fruit, you begin to stab at the tree. Your friend stops you and says no, do not kill the tree, give it a chance and see if it produces fruit this next season before you cut it down. They said if you do this, the tree will always produce a nice crop of fruit the next season. I actually did this with my friend on a tree that’s in his yard that wasn’t producing, I think it actually worked.”

That story reminds me of the parable in Luke 13:6-9.

“(Jesus) also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”

Here’s another thought: maybe sometimes we need some pressure or a threat in our life before we bear fruit.

How hard do things have to get before we produce something good for our Master?

Just a thought.

As for the trees, I do think there is a certain connection between us and the plant world, just as there is between man and the animals. Though our plants respond on a much slower scale than do our pets and livestock, I do think they respond. To care, to words, to our presence. Maybe showing a little disapproval gives them a kick in the tail. Or maybe it’s all nuts.

Still, I like the idea. “Fruit, sucka, or Ima gonna cut you!” I want it to be true.

Anyone else tried threatening a tree to make it fruit?