Only One Apple..?

[braders]

Evening Grapes
Ive been meaning to post this one for some time...bought 3 dwarf patio fruit trees from Parkers 3 years ago and the info was, that they would fruit in the second year, instead it was this year being 3 years and yet only one sodding apple...should I of pruned it..?..am a bit out of my depth with this one...pic attached.

Cheers
braders...

[WrexTheDragon]

The general rule is that you do not prune dwarf patio trees, other than shape.

Most suppliers give you the wrong info over fruiting times. I guess it was supplied as a 1 year maiden tree.
3-4 years is the norm.

At least you will have something to eat in October and it will be a taste of things to come.

It looks a very healthy tree from the photo.

[BFG]

How many flowers did you get? Maybe the rest didn't get pollinated..

[Snadger]

Must be a common theme................mine had a mass of flower but only three apples!

[FB.]

You don't mention the variety and it's difficult to tell from the picture of one young fruit, but the variety can make quite a difference to its behaviour.
Some varieties take several years before they'll fruit, whereas others will fruit at a very young age.
Some varieties are easily pollinated, while others require very good pollination. If you don't have a pollination partner (a different type of apple) nearby (in a neighbours garden will do) then there won't be enough compatible pollen.
If there aren't many bees around at flowering time (or they simply don't visit your tree) then you won't get many fruits.
Also, if there was a frost at flowering time, many of the flowers could have been damaged. Sometimes birds will peck at the fruit buds before they open into flowers.
Some trees also have a "biennial" fruiting tendency - they fruit extra-heavy every second year, with almost no fruit during the in-between years.

Bear in mind that it takes the energy from a dozen or more leaves to feed one fruit, so small trees will rarely manage more than a couple of dozen apples per season. If a young tree produced too many fruits, it wouldn't have teh energy to grow (young trees are supposed to want to grow for at least the first five years).

A couple of questions:

1.
Which variety is it?

2.
Is the tree growing each year?

[divvy]

I have one of those single stem trees in a pot on my patio . It's Braeburn . It had one cluster of flowers this year , year 2 , of which only one turned into an apple . I was guarding this with my life and while I was on holiday my son went round to water for me and my Grandson picked it . (

[WrexTheDragon]

I have a Victoria Plum that flowered for the first time this year and only one flower turned to a fruit.
Wahtched the fruit grow and it was doing well until yesterday when it fell off during a heavy rain downpour.