Apples or not?

[Headfry]

Please help....
we have 5 trees all bought for correct flowering times etc!
Bramley had heaps of blossom....but none have set?
2 trees had no flowers at all
2 trees have about 5 small apples growing, these were covered in blossom

Trees are 5-6 years old now, what am i doing thats so wrong!
They were bought from a good supplier of fruit trees.
The site is a little exposed but not a frost pocket

Please help if you can, I would love some apples.
We have in all the years had only one tiny Bramley so far....and that fell off and got eaten!

sob sob sob sob

[Palustris]

Lack of bees sounds to be the trouble. Round our fruit trees we have lots of be plants which flower from before the apple blossom to autumn, just to feed the bees for the rest of the year. If you site is windy, as in 'exposed' it may well be that the bees are discouraged from visiting. Mind it has been a funny year this year (when ain't it?). The most frequently asked questions on all sites seem to be about non-flowering, non setting fruit trees.
We have had good set on all but our Perry pear, 70 feet tall job and this had very very little blossom, normally we get cwts of useless fruit on it.

[andy12345]

Palustris,

Your comment about most sites' popular question being about non-flowering/non-setting fruit trees is interesting. I have been too busy to be aware of this situation, but I must ask some questions. In your experience, what do you think the cause of this is? Is it the lack of a strong winter chill or other factors? Obviously, the bees issue is already known due to colony collapse disorders or fungal bee infections throughout the world due to theories of nicotine pesticides/excessive radio waves/power line disturbances. Do any of you see many bees these days??

[Alice]

Andy in my garden I have loads of bees of many different kinds. Great big bumble bees, small orange bees, stripey bees, bees with orange bottoms and red bottoms. No shortage here. But I do have loads of flowers and flowering trees and shrubs.

[rustylady]

No problems with bees here either, either in the garden or on the allotment but like Alice I grow a lot of flowers to attract them. No problem with fruit set in my garden this year either - in fact I was thinning plum fruits yesterday (I hate doing it but if you don't they all stick together and go rotten like they did last year).

[terrier]

We bought some Borage yesterday from a garden centre and we had a trail of bees that followed us round and all the way back to the car. They looked pretty healthy to me.

[heebiejeebie]

Again, loads of bees and loads of flowers. They love the honeysuckle.

[TPeers]

Hi Headfry,

Stupid question 94 - but how well spaced are your trees, and when they flowered this year did you see them all in flower at the same time?

I only ask because when we moved here my house warming present from my Dad was a pair of apple trees which he was assured, by the bloke at Wisley no less, would be in the same polination group. I don't know if they are officially but one appears to be a group 1 and the other a group 3! I have had to plant a crab apple (oh what a hardship ) to correct the polination problems. The crab apple is about 20-25 ft from the other trees.

Could the same solution help you?

Terry

[Headfry]

Hi Terry,

Thanks- Yes I too was told they would be a good mix of same group polinators!
The trees are about 15' appart.
I was thinking of plant a crab apple! I love them, as you say- such a hardship!
The Bramley had loads of flowers but no fruit.
I will keep my fingers crossed for next year, my bee hive should be fully up and running by then, see if that helps!