Fruit drop is the plant aborting when resources fail

You sell reproductive organs. The chain is flower quality, pollination, set, then growth. The plant constantly scores whether it can finish. If it cannot, it drops.

Common scores that fail: a dry or flooded root, a heat spike at bloom, missing visitors, or a canopy that made flowers it cannot fill. Potassium and boron matter for set on many fruits — confirm with a test, as the nutrients series says. Do not guess a spray.

If drop follows a still, hot bloom week, look at pollination and water balance before another nitrogen push that only grows more leaf.

In this series

• Ask what cuts sugar production — not which bag to add
• A crop is only as good as its root system
• Maximise yield per drop, not drops per hectare
• Yield falls before the leaf wilts
• Fruit drop is the plant aborting when resources fail
• Architecture: every productive leaf needs light