Apple blossom stalks are falling off - a newbie panics

[petep]

My concern for today is that an apple tree that is growing against a fence panel has started to drop the tiny stalks that the blossom was on. Is this normal? I was gently touching them to see what was what but they started to fall off with the lightest of touches, leaving nothing but bare branch behind. Am I loosing all my potential crop, and if so what can I do to stop it?

I'm new to gardening and even though I know a thing or two, I'm being bombarded with new stuff almost daily. To add to the overwhelming feeling I'm still getting to know what the previously owner planted in the large garden.


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[Jeanied]

The stalks will fall if the apple blossom is not pollinated. If you had a lot of blossom it is likely not all of it will set fruit. Even then, once the fruit has started to form, there is usually another shedding of young fruit, called the June drop, because the trees are a bit over ambitious in their fruit formation.

So all of this is normal and natural. If you have a very young tree it will take a year or so to produce your first apple.

[Scarlet]

It's called June drop (hmm,I know it's only May!) it's not usually a problem.

[fishpond]

Do you have, or do you know if there is a compatible (one in the same pollinating group or either side of the pollinating group) pollinating tree in the vicinity of your garden.
Unless your tree is a triploid, in which case it will need 2 pollinating partners.

It does sound like some of the blossom has not been pollinated, even though some trees are Called "self fertile" they will set more fruit with a pollinator nearby.

You need trees and bees

[boundtothesoil]

I agree with the others. It's been a relatively early year for blossom, and mild, without much frost. And there have certainly been a lot of bees around, at least where I live, so pollination should be good. A single fruit bud on an apple tree can have seven flowers on. All seven flowers might be pollinated on every cluster of flowers, but in such a case the tree wouldn't have sufficient resources to grow the resulting huge crop of apples to maturity - hence the drops.

[petep]

It's a tree that was here when we moved in (we've only been here 7 months) so I know very little about most of the planting, but this one is up against a fence on the side of the house away from most of the planting. It's in an area of gravel driveway with a cow field on the other side of the fence. It's only companion is another fruit/apple tree 10' away that blossomed a few weeks later, although there was some overlap.

Based on size I would guess it's about 5 years old. It blossomed very heavily but I don't recall seeing many bees around it and it's quite a barren part of the property. Maybe next year I'll do some manual pollinating from my 28 newly planted apple trees, or perhaps they will be enough to bring the bees into the area.

We're not short of bees but at the moment they seem fixated on the Mahonia on the other side of the house.


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[fishpond]

Depends on a few things, not least-
Will the new apple trees blossom? If they are young they probably will not.
Are they in a compatible pollination group with the original tree?
Is the original tree a triploid?

It will be worth it in the end
Note:- Is the existing tree a tip or spur bearer or partially both?

[yummersetter]

Don't fret too much about seeing bees . . . its a bit of a myth that they're essential for fruit, a useful bit of BPR though. We have three hives and two acres of fruit trees - if you devote ten minutes to watching a tree in blossom on a sunny day there are lots of visiting flying and crawling insects on the blossom. Chances are that our honey bees are off feasting on the ten acre oil seed rape fields two miles away, though, but the apples still get fertilised by the rest.

[petep]

UPDATE: It looks like the two trees that had caused me the concern will be bearing very little fruit between them. The taller one has no fruit at all, and the smaller one has as many as 6 set. I don't know how old they are or how long they've been here so I'll have to assume they're reasonably new and not get too upset.

The trees that I planted in March are starting to blossom but I don't think there's been much insect activity around them so I'm. to holding out much hope. If they do set fruit I'll only let one or two stay as the trees should get a season to establish the roots. Hey ho! Any least the more mature trees seem to have been more successful.


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[Kirk]

I suppose that the bigger one isn't a cooker by chance?
As in a Bramley ?

Just thinking that some trees are triploid and will not pollinate another, then unless the overlap for blossom is very good the non-triploid is not in flower at the same time as the triploid. So then the triploid doesn't get pollinated much either.

Might explain why so few were pollinated successfully.

[pok98]

I hate to wade in on your thread but can I ask if it's normal for the June drop to result in all young fruits dropping? I've just got home from a few days away to find every single one of the small apples on my tree have dropped off! I'm gutted

[Kirk]

I suppose that it is.
If you had say 5 fruits all of 10gm and the viable size is 15gm then the tree could simply drop any it deems non-viable = all 5.

You and I know that if it dropped say 3 and kept 2 these 2 would be OK but I doubt trees operate like that.

It could have paid to have wandered round the tree earlier and selected the really small ones yourself and removed them. Then the remaining may have achieved a suitable size.

Equally the apples could have become infected and the tree recognised this and so terminated them. If recognised as infected then thetree is not going to waste food and energy producing something that is useless to it's purposes.

I am guessing that this is how it could work,

After the blossom did you spray for anything, that is often when bugs etc get in.

[boundtothesoil]

I've just got home from a few days away to find every single one of the small apples on my tree have dropped off!

Commiserations. I don't know if this year has been a good or bad year for fruit set generally. However, for me personally it's looking rather disappointing for several varieties. Where I live apple blossom dates were three weeks earlier for most varieties this year compared with last year. The weather here for pollination was pretty good though, mild often sunny days and no frost - lots of bees about. Most of my trees had abundant blossom and all looked hopeful for large crops. It doesn't look that way now, as the set on many trees is pretty modest (e.g. on usually prolific varieties like Discovery, Lord Lambourne, Sunset); often only the 'king' apple in each cluster has set. On the other hand the amount of new shoot/leaf growth all round is huge and, now that the crops are lightish, looks set to continue this way.

I wonder if the exceptionally early start to growth this year has somehow altered the normal resource balance within the tree, in favour of vegetative growth over reproductive growth. Then again, everyone else might have stonking crops.