> From: Steve Ellis <sellis at coup.wednet.edu>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Re Insects


> Are there such things as naturally occurring terrestrial 3dead zones2
> or can they all be traced to human causes?

I've been out of town, so I'm coming late to this thread, but I noticed last
summer (2005) that the plum trees along the alleyway behind our house bore
zero fruit, which came as a great disappointment to my son, who loves those
Japanese plums.

I was afraid it was a problem with the trees, which seemed to have had a
decent flowering. This year, however, the trees are covered with plums as
usual. This makes me think that they just didn't get pollinated last year;
we live in North Seattle. (The apple trees in the neighborhood had terrible
fruit set last summer as well. Pollination problems? Or temperature stress?)

-Josh Hayes
josh at blarg dot net