On Thursday, January 31, 2013 4:14:51 AM UTC-5, echinosum wrote:
'Pavel314[_2_ Wrote:

;977440']In spite of all this, they had an abundance of juicy red

berries.

Sometimes plants that have to try hard (but not too hard) are encouraged

by the situation to put all their energy into flowering and fruiting,

because they don't expect to live long. Move them into a comfortable

situation, they'll know they have longer to live, and put more energy

into surviving and less into reproducing.



The situation is well known in figs. You have to confine them and put

them on a pile of rubble to encourage fruting. It is not because they

require these conditions to grow well. Give them an easy life and they

will take to it, grow vigorously and healthily, but barely fruit at

all.



A plant growing in a crack in a rock next to a stream may be getting

natural trickle irrigation deep down, and may have access to particular

mineral nutrients. It can be very difficult to reproduce sufficiently

similar conditions in the garden.


echinosum

That sounds reasonable; my fruit trees produce a lot more after a heavy pruning in the dormant season.