Anyone care to give me some fruit tree advice?

[Mykittensmittens]

Thanks.

I’ve inherited 4 fruit trees in ours recently purchased house.

They can be no more than 5 years old as that’s when the owners did the garden. They are all approx 6ft tall.

I believe I have:
Two Pears (Bon Chretien)
One Cox’s Orange Pippin apple
One James Greive apple
One Sylvia Cherry.

They had been very very hard pruned when we arrived in Feb.

Vigorous growth on both pears. Not a single fruit.

Vigorous growth on the cox’s apple. One branch has one apple. Nothing else.

No growth on the James Grieve and frankly it looks very poorly (photo). No fruit.

Cherry had a lot of blossom. No sign of a single fruit forming.

I had such high hopes. What aren’t I doing that I should, and generally what can I do to encourage a better result next year? I do think they are crowded. Prob 3ft apart planted like a grid, so wouldn’t be averse to removing one or more.

Can anyone help?

If they were cut back hard I wouldn't expect any fruit until next year. Did they have blossom in the spring?

That looks like rotting on the second pic.

Do you know how old the trees are? My 5 variety family grafted apple tree is 4 years old and only just started to form fruit

Thanks. Nominal amount. Def some.

Is there a reason someone would hard prune fruit trees? Should you do that periodically?

@PerciphonePuma I’m guessing planted 5 years ago but no ideas on age other than that.

All 3 photos are the poorly free and that patch is on the lower branch spur off the trunk. It’s branches are sparse and some of the leaves are really withered and don’t look right at all.

Poorly TREE 🙄

Your James Grieve looks like it has canker in the main stem and will probably need to be removed, roots and all. As for the others, if you prune to a commercial shape they aren't overcrowded but would be if you let them get bigger. Wouldn't expect much fruit from them this year if they were pruned as hard as you say.

No fruit on the cherry after lots of blossom sounds like the birds ate the buds. Do you have finches?

Give it at least a year. Sometimes there's a bumper year followed by a fallow one.

They are a bit close. Presumably they have been planted that way for a reason.

The Cox's Orange Pippin needs a pollinator. The James Grieve is partly self-pollinating, but will act as a pollinator for the COP.

Don't know about the others.

@Magpiecomplex yep. Garden is part woodland and we have every bird possible including finches. I don’t mind if that’s where they’ve gone as I know it’s unlikely I’d get a crop with so many birds about.

I’ll take the James Greive out then I think. It’ll free up access to the pears anyway which (if they ever fruited!) would be most awkward to get to with that other tree there.

Thank you.

Also watch the Cox for the same symptoms - canker spreads... To spot it, when you prune, look at the cut surfaces. If you have brown discolouration through the centre of the stem, that's canker and you should prune back to a point where the discolouration stops, and cross your fingers.

Pears do take a while to start fruiting, so I wouldn't worry about them too much just yet.

Thanks. I’ll take the bad one out soon (too hot this week!)

Much too hot, don't blame you!

If you are taking the James Grieve out, check that there are apple trees locally as without another one the Cox won't fruit.

@KirstenBlest good point. A crabapple would do it.

I have just planted a falstaff in a bed about 3m away. I’m hoping that’s close enough? I’ve just checked a table online and it says red falstaff is a pollinator for pippins so fingers crossed I had a lucky accident there. Literally better luck than management!

I suspect with all your advice that’s what’s gone wrong this year. The Grieve is sick and barely blossomed, leading to the pippin being unpollinated. I feel SO uneducated.

The pears are another world. I’ll cross that bridge later - see how next year does!