Anyone else's apple trees hardly fruiting this year?

[peeveddoesntcoverit]

I'm very . Our two apple trees produced mountains of fruit last year, and loads of blossom this spring. Then one of those massive early-April rainstorms blasted all the blossom off. I assume this is the culprit.

Now I've only got a handful of apples growing.

Please tell me I'm not alone!

[Honsandrevels]

That's interesting. I hardly saw any blossom on ours so don't expect any fruit. I thought it was because the poor thing got squished when our old damson tree blew down on top of it during the high winds over Christmas. It sounds like it wasn't the damson tree then.

It is such a shame. We had tons last year too.

[lyndie]

We've been in our current house for 4 years and have had fruit every other year! I thought it was due to a bad winter but apparently some trees only fruit every second year.

[MamaMumra]

We have none at all
It had loads last year.

[peeveddoesntcoverit]

Well, I'm only making a guess, but it's the only thing I can think changed since last year. And the few apples that are growing are under the branches, where they might have been sheltered from the rain.

[WaffleWiffle]

My apples were heavily pruned so I'm not expecting much fruit this year.

But out pears are doing little this year. Very small amount of blossom and I can't see any fruit at all.

[MamaMumra]

We had such plans for the apples this year... Oh well.

[peeveddoesntcoverit]

Me too....
I know in the grand scheme of things, it's not that important though. Plus, I still have a cupboard full of chutney.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

We have no apples this year and barely any pears. So strange as we didn't have frosts so I can only think it's the rain.

[AtYourCervix]

I've got loads. But ot's only a baby tree and had none at all last year.

[EauRouge]

We've only got a couple this year and a friend has none at all.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

So all round to Cervixes in the autumn for apple pie then!

[AtYourCervix]

I'll take a pic tomorrow.

And look up pie recipes.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

[FullOfChoc]

I think last year was a bumper year, perfect weather conditions I think.

I have a few, nothing last year.

[BrunoBrookesDinedAlone]

Here too. Loads last year, nothing this. But - like Honsandrevels - we haven't really seen any blossom. There's just nothing. Weird. Neighbour says same... Could tiny baby blossoms have been hit by the wind before properly coming out?

[GnomeDePlume]

No apples in the garden but some on the allotment and plenty of pears on both.

However I will say that our little orchard (15 trees in all) is very new so I guess we will be grateful for anything we get.

[MrsRTea]

Not that I want to compete with OYBBK in pie-making, but both my apple and pear trees are laden. Last year was dreadful for us. The apple tree is certainly on a 2-year cycle.

[Castlelough]

One of mine is absolutely laden, the other has none. They are both in pots side by side, and would have fertilised one another. I have read that some varieties only crop every second year. My barren tree is Beauty of Bath. Not sure what my bountiful tree is...

[GnomeDePlume]

Castlelough, I read this on the Ashridge Trees website:

"It is not always a regular cropper: poorly cropping trees can often be helped with potassium rich fertiliser."

Might be worth a try especially if the tree are in pots.

[FunkyBoldRibena]

It often happens that trees produce fruit in large numbers and then spend a year recovering; almost making them fruit every second year.

Added to that, a damp spring where the flowers aren't pollinated because there are few insects about; makes for a low fruit year.

I pruned a very large apple this winter, had taken half off last year and another half off this and there are tons of fruit on it. And all the other old apples are fruiting this year after a prune whereas many of them didn't fruit at all last year.

I am definitely of the view that apples and other fruits take a year out after a heavy harvest, fruits one year and roots the next.

[funnyperson]

If there wasn't much blossom though, is it likely a tree will fruit this year even if one applies potassium rich fertiliser? Or can blossom still bloom?

[LeMousquetaireAnonyme]

Almost no blossoms here (so I guess no apples), last year was lush though. So funky might be right!

[notapizzaeater]

No pears at all, few apples but had loads of blossom. Lots of plums and cherries though. And for the first time (been planted 10 years) my kiwi vine is covered in blossom

[MisForMumNotMaid]

We have the reverse, fairly young tree but had a good few apples two years ago and almost none last year. This year considering its size, and we moved house with it, its laden.

[goshhhhhh]

I've got loads of Apples & plums. No grrengages. However loads of grrengage last year & no plums.