capers won't set fruit

[Daintree]

Does anyone have experience with caper bushes?  I only have one in my greenhouse.  It is flowering profusely but won't set fruit.  I go out in the morning and try to help things along by hand, but still no fruit set.
Any ideas?

Thanks!

Carolyn

[So_Cal_Mike]

I have a couple of small plants that have not flowered yet, but from all that I have read, they are self fruitful. The pickled capers are generally the unopened flower buds anyway. They do pickle the fruit too but it is considdered inferior to the flower buds.

[KarenRei]

C. spinosa is andromonoecious (can produce both male and bisexual flowers on the same plant).  The male flowers will never produce fruit, but the bisexual flowers are autogamous, aka capable of spontaneous self pollination, although hand- or insect pollination increases fruit set rate, from 9,4% to over 30% when pollinated from the same flower, to 50-60% when pollinated from a different flower. There is no self incompatibility - fruit set rates are the same between pollination from the same plant or a different plant.

Capers are pickled flower buds.  Caper berries are pickled fruits.

Ultimately, your plants' bisexual flowers will produce fruit when the plant is ready for it, and not before then.  But the male flowers will never fruit.

[Daintree]

Thanks Karen! I think the ones I have been seeing are bisexual, since they have what looks like a very long pistil in the center of the flower. Unless looks are deceiving...

Cheers,
Carolyn

[So_Cal_Mike]

Also, as an aside, capers are sorted by size... the smaller capers are considered the best. When a jar says “non-pareil” that means “without equal”, under 7mm, softer and more tender.

[RollingInTheWeeds]

Thanks Karen! I think the ones I have been seeing are bisexual, since they have what looks like a very long pistil in the center of the flower. Unless looks are deceiving...

Cheers,
Carolyn

Yep, mine has flowers that look exactly like your picture, and it sets fruit abundantly without me doing a thing. The green part of the pistil is what grows to be the “berry”.  The flowers attract bees, wasps, flies, etc.  It’s a pretty busy location in my garden!

Sorry, but I’ve no suggestions for coaxing your plant into setting fruit.

I usually preserve (brine) some of both the buds & the berries.  Until you begin getting fruit, are you interested in cooking with other parts of the plant.  Brining the buds is the most common practice that I’m aware of.  But there are also other things you can try.  I recently boiled some caper leaves and laid them on cooked chicken breast (which was otherwise pretty plain; more tomato would’ve helped also).  They’re bitter, even after boiling and rinsing, so I wouldn’t over-do it, but they add a complexity of flavor that at least *some* adults can appreciate.

I haven’t yet found a good source of info on how to cook with the leaves & stems, but I came across one reference to young, tender stems that compared them favorably to asparagus spears. 

The main thing to overcome in preparing caper tissues for eating seems to be their abundance of tannins.  That’s why all the boiling, brining, etc. is called for.

[shaneatwell]

My understanding is that they're wind pollinated or at least evolved to be, though I'd expect hand pollination to work fine. I have 4 in ground and the flower and fruit readily. Also they don't like to be watered. I don't have irrigation on any.

[RollingInTheWeeds]

Also they don't like to be watered. I don't have irrigation on any.

Shane, I’d modify that just a bit.  I have one in sandy soil in the LA area that’s over 20 years old & I water mine every couple of weeks in the summer.  I could get away without, but if memory serves rightly, the leaves are more tender and a bit deeper green now than when I left it completely up to Nature.  I also suspect that it’s growing more & growing faster (that’s a suspicion more than a true memory).

I have only the one plant in the ground & it produces far more buds & berries than I need.  You must be producing enough for a farmers’ market stall with the output from 4!

As far as *needing* water, you must be right.  There’s a picture in the Wikipedia article on “caper” of a big ol’ plant sprawling down the face of the Wailing Wall without any gardeners’ help.

[Daintree]

I have been treating mine like my other wetland tropicals. 
I will water it when I do the fig trees from now on.

Carolyn

[shaneatwell]

The reason I mention watering is because I imagined in a greenhouse its getting quite a bit. My oldest plant got watered a few times after planting and a couple times its first summer. Then never again. It is at the base of a retaining wall that supports an avocado and its probably stealing from there. Still, it did very well its first season when it was probably on its own. Clay soil might or might not help (vs. fast draining sandy soil). I got my second plant from an herb lady at a farmers market and it looked very yellow and sickly. Planted it and turned off the water and its done very well too. I have 3 or 4 seedlings now and haven't bothered to irrigate them. Doing great. To me its an ideal low water landscape/fruit plant. Nice color. Lovely flower. Butterfly plant (cabbage whites like it). And food.

To the subject of fruit set. Mine have all fruited early. Bees or wind? I have both. Not much of the later in a greenhouse.

[Seanny]

Good looking bush!

[RollingInTheWeeds]

I'd like to retract what I said earlier about watering my caper plant.  I've noticed that when I water it the foliage might get more lush, but that also attracts pests (e.g., Bagrada bugs and Southern Green Stink bugs).  Once those guys are in the neighborhood, they suck the life out of the plant -- not enough to kill it, but they cause a lot of damage to the leaves, buds and fruit.  The plant won't be very productive that year (and is ugly!). 

Once the plant is established in the ground, its roots go deep, so there's no need to water it.

[Daintree]

Mine is in a pot. Still hasn't set fruit, but I decided to just let it do its thing and make pretty flowers.  Not like I was going to actually pickle or brine them anyway.

On a side note, my grandma used to have us kids picks buckets of "button weed" buttons, which she would pickle, because capers were too expensive. And most folks think common mallow is just a weed. Ha!

Carolyn

[Iceman716238]

Ha! I like capers in recepie  lot recently

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