Not One Apple!!

Has it been pruned recently?

I only ask because my apple tree didn't have a thing on it the year before last, then last autumn/winter I gave it a good hard prune and last year it was covered.

This year however....

I didn't prune the very top, so might try that this year if no apples appear.

It hasn't been a good year for pollination of my apples - even the self-fertile one's have barely a normal crop. The self-sterile (including triploids such as Blenheim) have only a very light crop, or none at all. I expect that most of my apples will slip into a biennial bearing habit form now on.

Blenheim Orange is notorious for biennial fruiting (heavy fruiting only every second year), so that could be part of the problem if your Cox is OK.
But even with the Cox, wait until the end of June (when the tree naturally drops some or all of it's fruit - especially if poor pollination) before you count your apples.

Looks like it won't be a good year for my apples either. I bought 8 single leg cordons (all different varieties) this year and before I went away at the end of April, they were blossoming nicely. Having returned a month later, only two of the trees have any set fruit, and these are pretty thinly spread. I can't see any pests but they may have moved on. My only experience of apples is the big old cooker in my garden which is big and nasty enough to shrug off infestations so I'm stumped as to what's done this. Any ideas?

The varieties are:

Golden Noble
Yello Ingestry
James Grieve
Rivers Early Peach
Pitmaston Pineapple
Beauty of Bath
Ribston Pippin
Peasgood Nonsuch

Thanks in advance

Quite often a young tree that is allowed to crop heavily will not produce fruit the next year.





Yes, we had a cold, windy spell that did for all but one blossom on my Braeburn.

The only blossom that appeared was in the shelter of a hanging basket.

The James Grieve next to it flowered the week before and is fine.

My Cox's appears to be cropping very heavily especially for a Cox but my young G. Smith which did well last year is struggling. My russet (Reinette Descardre) is also doing next to nothing. The cold early year has done for my apricot what it has done for your Braeburn. No apricots this year. Looks like a poor year for fruit. After heavy crops all round last year I fed well in late winter and early spring but to no avail.

I'd be interested to have some advice about Apricots Sarrac.My patio tree had blossom for the first time this year and I did try and remember to cover it with fleece on the cold nights.Not one fruit tho, so should I have hand pollinated it?

Hi Maddie. I hope you remembered to take the fleece off during early mild days to allow the insects in. Just kidding. You obviously did.

I usually get the old squirrel hair out anyway for the apricot. They never seem too reliable at setting fruit. Remember not to over-feed it. They like it well drained and sparse in nutrients otherwise they get lazy and drop all the blossom anyway. I think it really was just too cold up here in frozen Yorkshire for the stone fruits this year, the only thing my peach has developed is leaf curl . Out with the Bordeaux mixture. I wonder why we do it. Are we all mad?

They look quite small - perhaps only one or two years old?
They may need to be 3-4 years old and with have well-established roots before they really start to fruit. Also, fruit spurs tend to take a few years to build up to full capacity. In some cases, even if a young tree "sets" fruit, it often drops them during the summer, even after the June drop.
Poor pollination, or bad weather at flowering time (flowers pollinate best in good weather and bees don't fly as much in bad weather), but it could be that there simply wasn't a large enough mass of flowers to attract enough bees. What few bees were around may have been far more interested in a bigger tree (with more flowers) elsewhere.

Hello One & All,

Thank you for all the replies. i've never pruned the tree & it had loads & loads of fruit last year so I think it was my fault. Hey Ho you live & learn! I was looking forward to those beautiful apples though.

Minskey
It may not be your fault, as FB says, it may well be that your tree is a biennal fruiter. I have around half a dozen apple trees in my front garden, and 1 of them, the biggest one, only gives fruit every second year, no matter what I do. I pruned it last year, and got a great crop, but this year, still no a pomme to be seen.
If you get a good crop next year but nothing the year after, then you will be assured that you have done nothing wrong.
Hope you're a patient gardener!!

Biennial bearing, by the sound of it. I don't know whether Blenheim orange is particularly prone to it, but many apple varieties are. it can be controlled by judicious pruning, but those more expert than me will have to provide the details.

Blenheim is very prone to biennial fruiting.
If it troubles you, you could try some or all of the following:

Prune half of the new green shoots back to about 2-3 new buds in July each year.
By pruning new growth in July, it "shocks" the tree into producing more flower buds for the next season.

Thin out about one-third of the fruit buds during winter, to reduce the crop for the next season.
By removing a portion of the fruit buds, you allow the tree to carry a manageable crop each year, instead of almost killing it with the burden of raising all the fruits in one season and then not working it at all in the next season.

Allowing more sunlight to shine on the tree increases fruit bud formation for the next season.

Reducing feeding and watering also seems to encourage more fruit buds.

Not winter-pruning the main stems may also help. Winter pruning of fruit buds is fine, but winter pruning of non-fruiting branches encourages the tree to grow stronger the next year at the expense of fruit buds for the following year.

Root pruning or bark ringing could be used, but probably isn't necessary in this instance.
The rootstock that the Blenheim is grafted onto, might affect how I'd go about managing the tree.

Some people find that "thinning" of a heavy crop of apples in the "on" years helps, but there is scientific evidence that it is the number of buds that flower and not the fruit set which determines the amount of fruit buds formed for teh following season. In other words, a tree that has a lot of flowers in one year may have very few the next - regardless of whether they get pollinated. As mentioned above, winter "thinning" of fruit buds will reduce the number of flowers for the following year and summer pruning of young green stems will increase the number of flowers for the following year.

Personally, I'd try cutting back half of the young stems each July (summer pruning)......or buy a second Blenheim and try to get them to fruit in alternate years!

Thanks Sarrac,
I'll remember that about not feeding the Apricot too much and make it a nice little house with fleece and canes for next year! Yes I did take the fleece off, but there just weren't any insects around, so it's out with the brush next time.
I had a patio nectarine too(such pretty blossom) but that got leaf curl so badly, it's popped it's clogs (RIP)
On a more positive note, I planted my container grown apples into permanent places in the garden last winter.Worked out that the poor things have been in containers for over 15 years, re-potted and fed sporadically, but generally abused! In their life they have produced lots of lovely blossom, but very few apples (not suprisingly)
Things look really hopeful this year....lots of fruit has set and I WILL thin it out after the "June Drop"
Yes, we ARE totally mad and us lot in frozen Yorkshire really ought to stick to rhubarb( which grows like a weed in my little garden and I'm not that fond of it!)

I see from this thread that some varieties are more prone to fruiting alternate years than others. I have a family apple tree with three varieties: James Grieve, Laxtons superb and egremont russet. This year there was no blossom and so no fruit on the LS even though the other varieties set well.

The LS graft seems to be growing much stronger than the other two. Any suggestions how to balance it out?

The tree is about 5 years old but was moved two years ago. It is on quite a dwarfing rootstock not sure of the exact one.