apple tree did not produce this year

[simon180399]

hello group my apple tree failed to fruit this year, im presuming its to do with the weather.

its 3 years old and it now stands about 15ft tall the girth at its base is nearly 3 inches.

the variety is 'gloster M26' it says its a self fertile with 'rootstock M26'.

the question i have is, do i prune it like you do a rose or should i just leave it alone.

btw it fruited for the last 2 years.

simon

[rustylady]

It's been a bad year for fruit, due to the weather. I got 12 plums from my Victoria which usually produces more than I can use, and even the huge old apple tree in the garden hasn't produced as many fruit as usual.

FB is our expert on fruit and pruning, but I would think definitely do NOT prune it like a rose.

[WendyC]

Can't advise you about pruning but my crab apple tree which has fruited well for the last 15 years only has a few miserly apples. Last year it had so many we had to support the branches before they broke! RHS has some good pruning guides on their website.

[veggiechicken]

I have about 20 huge apple trees - for the first time ever I've had no apples. Its been a terrible year here. If you want pruning advice a photo helps!

[FB.]

It could be due to a bad year. Even a self-fertile variety wont help if the bees don't visit to move the pollen around the flowers. Self-pollinated fruits are of lower quality anyway as the pips are inbred.

It may be that pests or diseases have destroyed the fruits - scab or codling moth being the main culprits. Did the tree flower in April-May?

Gloster is known for being a vigorous grower, so on M26 and in an area with plentiful rainfall (especially if the soil is good) I am not surprised it has reached 15ft.
Even though it's on "semi-dwarf" M26, the high vigour of the Gloster part will make it equal in size to an average variety on MM111.

Many people are misled that all trees in all conditions will reach the same size if grown on the same rootstock.
Nothing could be further from the truth: scion, soil, climate - and especially rainfall - are just as important in how big a tree gets and how quickly.

Gloster is supposed to be mainly a spur-bearer, but perhaps you are pruning it too hard, which is removing the spurs and encouraging strong regrowth. Perhaps you are feeding it too much nitrogen and not enough potassium. Some varieties do need plentiful potassium in order to crop well.

It may also be that despite a reputation for good regular crops, the tree is perhaps becoming biennial. Some varieties take several years to show this trait, which may be a longer period than the initial trials which reported "heavy, regular cropping". Laxton's Superb, from the early-1900's, showed that undesirable trait (and tendency to scab) - but only after vast acreages of commercial orchards had been planted with it. Ooops.

I suggest no nitrogen, plenty of potassium and some summer pruning (July) to remove strong-growing new shoots. This will increase fruitfulness in subsequent years and will keep the tree at a manageable size.
You can tidy it up during the winter too, but this makes follow-up sumemr pruning even more imoprtant.

If the tree is already too large and strong, consider doing half the pruning before the leaves drop - i.e. in the next week or two. This will prevent it storing the nutrients from the leaves in the roots for the winter, so it will be slower growing next year. However, do not remove more than half its leaves if you prune while it has leaves on, otherwise it might not survive.
By pruning hard, you will lose some or all of next year's crop.

[Dusty Rhodes]

If the apple blossoms get zapped by cold weather, there won't be any fruit for that year.

This year's new shoots grow the fruit next year. You must be careful how you prune! Many university ag sites have excellent articles on apple tree pruning.

[FB.]

FB is our expert on fruit and pruning, but I would think definitely do NOT prune it like a rose.

Roses seem to flower (and "fruit") on shoots which grew earlier in that season. Cutting a rose back hard doesn't seem to prevent flowering.
Apples, on the other hand, tend to fruit on wood which greew the previous season, or the season before that.

Tip bearers blossom and fruit on the ends of the previous year's growth, so the entire crop can be lost with a winter "haircut" (i.e. don't use a "snip, snip, snip, snip" all round the tree, as you might for a hedge). 2013's crop on a tip-bearer will be at the ends of shoots which grew during 2012.

Spur bearers blossom and fruit from large furry buds on the sides of two-year-old shoots. 2013's crop on a spur-bearer will mostly be along the sides of shoots which grew in 2011 or earlier and where the "dormant" side buds where each leaf was in 2011 have fattened during 2012 to become blossom buds for 2013.

In most cases, good fruit tree pruning can be achieved by not allowing strong upright shoots to grow (unless, of course, you want a tall, vigorous tree). Upright shoots tend not to fruit, but tend to form new upper canopy main branch structure.
For size control and improved fruit quality I will sometimes cut out all the long upright shoots in mid-summer. It does wonders for reducing bitter pit too.

[simon180399]

wow, a wealth of information there!

at the moment its not causing or likely to cause any problems for the foreseeable future so i think i will let nature take its course.

i have not pruned it ever, it was about 7 ft when we purchased and planted it, the soil is good, we have rose plants growing from the same soil and no lie they are over 12ft tall and my neighbours are always commenting how great they look, they are pruned every year down to around 6ft which was why i asked about pruning in case it worked in the same way.

anyway thankyou for your helpful comments, heres looking to next year.
simon

[FB.]

If it continues to grow strongly next year and doesn't show signs of blossom or fruit, then consider cutting back any new shoots (only the new shoots - and do it in July) to just a couple of inches in length (two to four buds/leaves from the base). This will reduce vigour and increase cropping the following year.

[Two_Sheds]

No apples here at all, no quince either, and no sloes at all in "my" patch



Another great year for raspberries though

[pigletwillie]

Dare I say but I think your lack of fruit is naff all to do with pruning butv everything to do with the weather. Because the weather was so bad the pollinating insects, like my bees, couldnt get out to do what nature intended. If the weather is wet and horrid, the bees dont fly and your flowers dont get fertilized.

It is as they say, as simple as that.

[BertieFox]

This has been an appalling year for apples and even the commercial orchards here, which is the prime apple producing area in Europe, has produced a fraction of its normal crop. Although flowers got pollinated the cold and wet weather prevented fruit set and a lot of the early fruit got frosted or just fell off.
If your young tree starts to bear a crop that looks 'too heavy' for the size of the tree, either next year or in any one of its early years, reduce the crop early on to a much smaller number. Once a tree starts to crop heavily one year, it may not crop the next, and it gets into the habit of biennial bearing. It's better to have some apples every year, rather than a bumper crop every two years.

[FB.]

To prevent biennial bearing, I recommend thinning the fruit buds or fruit spurs before the tree gets to open the flowers.
It may well be that once a flower is pollinated (even if the flower or the fruit which forms is subsequently removed) that the act of pollination itself causes a hormonal response within the tree which inhibits flower bud formation later that season - so few or no flowers for the following season.

[binley100]

Last year was a fantastic year for fruit trees....this year much reduced crop of cherries and apples and no plums on my usually laden tree at all,also like T-S, no sloes here or Damsons so I think its a hard year to judge on a trees performance.