Apple tree

[Allfurcoatandnoknickers]

We moved into our house last year and inherited two old apple trees. We had a fantastic crop last year but had the trees pruned by a tree surgeon, and this year haven’t had nearly as many. Do you think it’s the weather or the pruning or a combination of both?

What time of year did you have them pruned?

Some old trees get into a 2 yearly cycle, we have a very old cider apple tree that is like this. One year it'll be covered and the next year it's very sparse. I think especially if they haven't been maintained very well with pruning. We inherited ones with the house that hadn't been touched in 20+ years.
in any case, almost always with apple trees you want a smaller crop than they could actually produce - if they have too many the tree can't provide enough resources for them all. So fewer better quality ones are usually better anyway

Trying to remember when we had it pruned but I think it was at the start of December

It may have put most of this year's energy into growing new branches rather than flowering. I'm no expert on fruit trees, but a lot of shrubs do that. Maybe wait and see what happens next year?

As a PP biennial bearing can be a problem. See RHS link for info/advice www.rhs.org.uk/problems/fruit-biennial-bearing

Yes the blossom was a bit poor too but I didn’t see it last year as we moved mid May when the blossom had finished.
The guy who pruned it said it hadn’t been touched for a few years that he could see. Not sure how often we should prune it?
Will see how it fares next year!