Bayberry Fruiting
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Debbie
Posted on: August 29, 2012

Firstly, let me say that I love Richters! Ive been a customer for a number of years and have been pleased over and over again with my business with you. I bought a bayberry from you and would like to know if it is male or female and whether I will need to buy other trees in order to get fruit. If so, do you carry both types of trees? Or, is it a special variety that produces fruit on it’s own? I am excited to think I might be able to get berries for home use. I would buy more trees to ensure fruit production as soon as possible if i need them.

I am afraid you will have to buy more bayberries, because it needs both a male and a female shrub to produce berries on the female. Unfortunately our shrubs are seed grown so on average there will be about the same males as females. Some clones do produce both male and female flowers , so watch carefully to see if you happened to be lucky.

The trouble is, until they bloom you cannot tell the sexes apart....I would suggest that you buy about half a dozen, to make sure that at leasdt one of each sex is included and plant them all in a bunched fashion and when they bloom, keep the most floriferous male and jank out and discard all the other males. The plants sucker anyway so the male will spread amongst the other female plants in the group.

The plants take 3-4 years to reach flowering size.

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