Trouble identifying fruit tree....

[steveviscious89]

If it is a fruit tree, I was trying figure out what type before the fruits come in. The flowers were small and white and not clustered and came in almost before the leaves did. The leaves look similar to apple tree leaves, but I noticed what looked like pits from the previous year still on some of the branches. I grabbed one and cracked it open just to make sure it was a pit. So that would rule out any type of apple or pear. The leaves are thin and fairly light colored. Anyone have a guess or at least a list of possibilities?

Edit: the pits I have noticed are rather small. It could be some type of cherry tree, but I would think the leaves would need to be darker or thicker.

Also....and this will be hard to explain......the tree appears to have a small main branch that grew separate from the rest of the tree. Incidentally, this section is the section that actually bloomed, while the rest of the tree did not. Also, the leaves are a different shape. The section that bloomed has more narrow leaves than the other, but the texture is the same. I'm wondering if there was some cross breeding at work here....

[zazen999]

What was in the 'pit' that you took off? A stone or pips?

[rustylady]

Please post a picture - it's really hard to work out just from a description. Is the tree in your garden?

[veggiechicken]

Does it have thorns? It sounds like a plum sucker or a sloe/bullace.

EDIT - Just noticed you''re in the US so it may not be a plant that I would recognise

[steveviscious89]

It does not have thorns. I know pictures would be helpful and I'll see if I can manage that.

[steveviscious89]

Ok here are a few pics. As you can see, the tree appears split near the bottom. The picture of the narrow leaves with a couple small fruits is from the small branch off on the right. The picture with the wider leaves is from the rest of the tree.

[rustylady]

Does the main part of the tree flower?

[steveviscious89]

It may have last year, but it did not this year. There appeared to be leftover pits on the branches of the main part. We only moved into this place a few months ago so I have no way of knowing exactly what happened last year.

[starloc]

The larger leaves look like apricot, the smaller leaf would be the rootstock, maybe St.Julien or some type of cherry plum , it looks like the wild sown plums type trees I have in the gardens in Bulgaria

[steveviscious89]

I thought it looked like apricot as well, but I wish I knew how it ended up grafting to a plum tree.

[FB.]

I thought it looked like apricot as well, but I wish I knew how it ended up grafting to a plum tree.

I agree that it could well be a stone fruit (such as an apricot) and that the rootstock leaves look distinctly plum-like, or something very closely related such as damson/bullace etc.

Because stone fruits can often be cross-grafted (almond onto plum, peach onto plum etc), it's better to graft to a rootstock with known qualities of dwarfing or precocity.

Minimising the selection and use of dual-purposing of rootstocks helps with mass-production and keeping costs low; there's little point bothering spending lots of time and money growing or breeding an apricot rootstock when it's quick and cheap to produce trees of known characteristics on plum rootstock, and without the additional complexity of another rootstock bed in the nursery.

Pears are grafted onto Quince in many countries, as it dwarfs by half compared to pear rootstock and brings the tree into cropping at an earlier age (unless the soil is dry, infertile or alkaline, in which case pear stock is better performing).
Hawthorn can also be used as an acceptable rootstock for pears or apples, although its partial incompatibility can cause problems - especially the nasty thorny suckers round the base of the tree, and the increased susceptibility to diseases such as fireblight.

[steveviscious89]

So now the question is, why didn't this alleged apricot section flower this year? Same reason any other tree might not bloom?

[starloc]

A lot depends on the chill hours in the winter, most apricots need about 800 hours between around 30F to 45F to make them flower
Apricots flower a lot earlier than plums, mine in the UK flower in late Feb/early march but plums usually flower in April , so flowers would have been some time ago, frost damages the buds on the Apricots due to early flowering and lack of insects to pollinate them is a problem, so they need protection if its cold and polinating especialy if you cover tem up to protect them , maybe it flowered very early and the cold made the flowers all drop?, they flower before the leaves grow

[FB.]

Lack of blossom could be because of:

1.
Insufficient summer sunlight.

2.
Insufficient summer warmth.

3.
Incorrect pruning technique.

4.
Biennial cropping tendency (plums are notorious).

5.
Too much nitrogen fertiliser.

6.
Potassium or other non-nitrogen nutrient deficiency.

7.
Tree not mature enough.

[steveviscious89]

A lot depends on the chill hours in the winter, most apricots need about 800 hours between around 30F to 45F to make them flower
Apricots flower a lot earlier than plums, mine in the UK flower in late Feb/early march but plums usually flower in April , so flowers would have been some time ago, frost damages the buds on the Apricots due to early flowering and lack of insects to pollinate them is a problem, so they need protection if its cold and polinating especialy if you cover tem up to protect them , maybe it flowered very early and the cold made the flowers all drop?, they flower before the leaves grow

I am sure there were no flowers on that side at all. I was watching it like a hawk when the leaves started coming in and prior to that because just looking at its structure I figured might be a fruit tree. That's when I noticed the flowers on the other side. I couldn't figure why it didn't flower anywhere else until I noticed the leaves were different. You'd be hard pressed to find anything flowering in early march in my zone.