No apples

[Jimmy]

My neighbour has a sizable apple tree in his back garden.
Ever year it produces a huge amount of fruit. Lovely red eating apples.
He told me to use what I wanted.
So from the ones I can reach over the fence I usually make a couple of apple pies.
The rest just rot on the tree, a total waste.

Anyway this year I looked over the fence and from what I could see there wasn't a single apple on the tree!

I this the bad weather early in the year?
Anyone else see this?

Thanks Jimmy

[Nicos]

Yup….I guess that’s the case. I only have a handful of apples and pears on my trees - some trees have none at all.
we had very early and late frosts here.
Some apple trees fruit better on alternate years though, so it could be a combination - unless you know ‘your’ tree fruits well every year?

[Jungle Jane]

Yes I’ve only got one pear growing this year,the branch with the pear is a bit smothered by the plum tree leaves,I wonder if it’s the plum tree that protected that one pear from the frosts.

[ameno]

Unless your neighbour pruned it heavily this year then it must be because of the cold spring we had.
Apples usually flower late enough to avoid the frosts, though. Certainly my apples have lots of fruit on them, as do the plums in my garden (too many; it took a couple of hours to thin them). The plum at my allotment, which is more exposed, only has one fruit, however, and the pear at the allotment has only four or five fruits.

[nickdub]

All fruit trees have a tendency to become biennial bearers if they are not given some feed in the ground like manure.

Some of my trees have plenty of apples on, but others relatively few. I'd say of the tree in question has cropped heavily before the likeliest cause for it having an off year is that its cropped itself out and did not get any fertiliser to feed up on.

[Plot70]

I blame the late frost.
I have only got one apple on my tree. The frost took out most of the flowers.
The tree was damaged badly by a wind blown fence panel and only produced one fruit last year.
This year all the energy has switched to top growth after the frost ruined the fruit. It had 15 apples when it was in a pot a coup[le of years before.
Apples grow well enough in the ground in my area so that is where it is now.

[greenishfing]

Last year my Bramley apple was overly generous, this year.....nothing but my eating apple trees are full and my pear tree is over- full. The plums and cherries that flower earlier are very sparse. I just work on the theory that every year I get something and variety is the spice of life.

[MelanieSW]

My Red Windsor only has a single apple this year, although it has been flowering ok. Just nothing set. The blossoms must have been caught by a cold day in Spring.
Weirdly the plum tree which I had been more concerned about is laden with fruit. It has flowered a bit earlier.

[Plot70]

I have had all the lead shoot buds whipped off two fig trees for two years. It has takeen them several weeks to form new buds and come into leaf.
It is just bad weather period.

[Shortie]

Oh this is interesting... My pole apple trees (just 2) started weirdly this year - 1 put blosson out before leaves and the other (right next to it) leaves and no blossom. I'Ve spotted fruit on neither of them

I had no idea that they could fall into a natural flow of being biennial

[nickdub]

Oh this is interesting... My pole apple trees (just 2) started weirdly this year - 1 put blossom out before leaves and the other (right next to it) leaves and no blossom. I've spotted fruit on neither of them

I had no idea that they could fall into a natural flow of being biennial

Other factors come in to this too. Immature trees, poor or no pollination and as has been mentioned already late frosts.

However with reports of a mature apple tree Probably growing in grass cropping one year and not the next leads me to believe biennial bearing is the most likely answer. BTW this is not an inevitable state for a tree. Commercial growers feed their trees every year, and they also clear the ground around the base of the trees of grass. The variety (and rootstock) comes into it too. Cox will go biennial at the drop of a hat whereas a tree like Sunset, grown in the same conditions, will crop nearly every year