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Symptom

Young fruit dropping

Plants shed fruit they cannot support after stress, poor pollination or pest attack. Some drop is natural: many fruit trees thin themselves in early summer.

Cut a fallen fruit. Grubs inside point to pests; seedless or undeveloped fruit to poor pollination; healthy fruit to stress or natural thinning.

Likely causes

Ordered from the usual answer to the less likely one. Each links to the full problem.

Recorded on Cucumbers

  1. A courgette with a withered flower and a shrivelling fruit Fruiting Common

    Poor pollination

    Poorly pollinated fruit is shed early.
  2. A drooping plant in dry, cracked soil Watering Possible

    Underwatering

    Drop after the plant dries out.

Less likely on Cucumbers

  1. Ripe raspberries collapsing from fruit fly damage Pest Possible

    Fruit flies

    Fallen fruit with maggots inside.
  2. A cut feijoa with brown, tunnelled flesh Pest Less likely

    Guava moth

    Feijoas and guavas dropping with tunnels.