Early Apples?

[VirginVegGrower]

Apple trees are flowering already. Anyone else have this problem at the minute and should I do anything in light of recent frosts?

Thanks in advance!

[chris]

Check out this thread for some info! My apples aren't, but my soft fruit are!

[VirginVegGrower]

Truly bonkers! Think I'll just leave it to Mother Nature and hope for the best.
Ta CM!

[FB.]

Yes, its the strange seasons we've had this year.
Don't worry about it.

However, the flowers will probably not be pollinated and won't have enough time to ripen. Any small fruitlets are unlikely to grow.
However, on occasion, some fruit trees with poor pollination in spring can have a "second bloom" in early summer, with a chance that fruits might develop normally.

Also, don't despair: I've seen apple trees lose their fruit buds during winter (e.g. to birds), yet somehow convert what would have been leaf buds into fruit buds to flower only slightly later than they would have done with their original blossom buds.
I've also seen it happen in reverse - where a fruit tree converts fruit spurs into new shoots.

[VirginVegGrower]

Thanks FB - just wanted to make sure I didn't have to take action to remove them or anything. Didn't want what is a three year old tree to die on me... Thanks!

[FB.]

The tree won't die, but if the blossoms get frost-damaged the flower will be killed and might be an entry point for canker. However, if you cut the flower off now, you may also provide a wound for canker to enter (canker is very active in damp autumn and early winter - it often enters through small wounds such as where leaves have fallen and left a scar on the stem).
Any canker would normally be dealth with in the winter pruning, so even that is not a problem if you manage the trees sensibly. Some varieties are naturally fairly resistant to canker, while others - especially common or once-common varieties - can be very susceptible.

[VirginVegGrower]

It's the canker I was worried about. Should I take my chances and leave it, or prune and Arbrex? I am undecided/unsure...

[FB.]

It's the canker I was worried about. Should I take my chances and leave it, or prune and Arbrex? I am undecided/unsure...

I leave my trees to get on with it. I don't have the time to get out the step ladder to prune off a few blossoms. I'll deal with any cankers when I do the winter pruning.

Pruning in autumn (such as now) will only encourage canker - because canker likes to infect where falling leaves or fruit have left a fresh scar. If you prune, you may actually have canker spores in the air or on the branch, which then get into the tree when pruned - and then it won't make any difference whether painted with arbrex because the spores will already have entered.

I recommend not pruning apples until all the leaves have fallen, or, in summer, where size control is required, only prune soft green shoots in July-August.

Canker is not as able to infect once the tree is dormant - the tree has hardened-off, the leaf/fruit wounds have healed and the temperature is too cold for canker to germinate.

[VirginVegGrower]

OK FB thank you - this kind of sets my mind at rest. I will leave well alone

[donnakebab]

FB you are a font of knowledge. I have already pruned my fruit trees so was that a mistake? They have only been planted just over a year so still young. I didn't let them fruit the first year as I read that it's better to let the roots establish. I went to my lotty yesterday and strangely the braeburn apple tree still has all it's green leaves where as the other trees (cox, victoria plum and conference pear) are bare. I am a complete novice when it comes to fruit trees as you can probably tell.

[FB.]

FB you are a font of knowledge. I have already pruned my fruit trees so was that a mistake? They have only been planted just over a year so still young. I didn't let them fruit the first year as I read that it's better to let the roots establish. I went to my lotty yesterday and strangely the braeburn apple tree still has all it's green leaves where as the other trees (cox, victoria plum and conference pear) are bare. I am a complete novice when it comes to fruit trees as you can probably tell.

If the leaves have fallen, then you haven't done them much harm.

Whenever a tree is pruned, there is always a small risk of canker entering the wound, but canker is something that any fruit grower should always be watchful for. The "cure" for canker is to cut it out immediately when seen.

If your pruning session removed shoots with leaves, those nutrients within the leaves will not have been withdrawn into the roots to fuel root growth or shoot growth next spring (leaves turn yellow because they are exporting most of the useful materials to the roots, to store as reserves to kickstart strong growth the next season). Removal of leaves de-vigourates a tree.

.

My view on disease is this:

If the tree doesn't have enough disease resistance to be able to wait until the next winter pruning for me to deal with it, then it's not worth growing.

.

I think that in the longer term, you might struggle to keep the Cox and Victoria healthy - and possibly the Braeburn. They are widely grown and therefore the UK has plenty of other diseased trees of the same type which can easily pass-on the infection to yours by wind-dispersion.
After many years of growing fruit trees, my conclusions have been that ancient varieties which were never widely grown, often have the best disease resistance because the diseases have not often had to find ways to defeat it; it takes many years for pests and diseases to evolve ways to break through a variety's resistance. Therefore the more a variety has been grown and the longer it has been grown for, the more likely that it will soon succumb to diseases.