When should I expect fruit?

[new gardener 1052]

Good morning. I know my question may have a lot of affecting factors but how long should a apple tree be planted before it should be fruiting? (On average)

I'm not quite sure how old my trees are I'm guessing around 2 years old. I've paid top money for all my trees from good suppliers so I'm expecting good results. Some are in the ground some in pots. I've used a good mix of soil & compost. All are in a sunny position. Can't really avoid the wind but there not over exposed.( don't really understand how wind plays a factor anyway ?)

Looking forward to hear what you guys have to say.
Many thanks Steve.

[fishpond]

Do you have any flower buds showing?
What varieties have you got?
Whereabouts in the country are you?

[veggiechicken]

When did you buy them.............and plant them?

[Kirk]

Good morning. I know my question may have a lot of affecting factors but how long should a apple tree be planted before it should be fruiting? (On average)

I'm not quite sure how old my trees are I'm guessing around 2 years old. I've paid top money for all my trees from good suppliers so I'm expecting good results. Some are in the ground some in pots. I've used a good mix of soil & compost. All are in a sunny position. Can't really avoid the wind but there not over exposed.( don't really understand how wind plays a factor anyway ?)

Looking forward to hear what you guys have to say.
Many thanks Steve.

Would have actually expected that if they were 2 years old they would have tried to bear fruit. Trees will produce blossom fairly early and that leads to fruit. There are many instances of people saying their apples have been in a year and have had blossom and now numerous small apples on them. They usually get told that in the first year to remove them all and perhaps allow one to develop in the second year.

When did you plant them? If say May/June then the first blossom may not have been seen by you.

What are the varieties, it is possible to plant 2 triploids and that would mean very poor or no cross pollination - I managed that with 3 apples. Had to buy a pollinator to get anything.

Have you pruned/trained the apples. Just there is the chance that you have cut out the flowering buds. And no flowering buds means no flowers and no fruit.

Finally rootstock, what are they on. The larger rootsrocks can come into production later.

The "Wind" factor will be the bees to pollinate the tree, bees prefer calm sunny locations, constant wind will be a big negative aspect to a bee. A bee flying at 5mph back to it's hive with a 7mph head wind is kind of in trouble.

[new gardener 1052]

I'm in aberdeen scotland, I've got falstaff / James grieves / Katy / discovery. None of the trees have been planted a year yet. Can see leaves but no sign of any blossom yet on any of the trees.

Root stocks are all m26

[Kirk]

Katy - good, duploid and robust - came from Sweden apparently.
Falstaf - another duploid (good) (3) seems it is not over vigerous but reads it can produce lots.
J Grieve - Duploid (3) another good grower.
Discovery - Duploid (3) may be slightly small in size.

All look fine, all duploid so no pollination concerns, all similar pollination groups.
Mine have leaves and no blossom yet so I guess you will not get any for another 3 weeks at a guess.
As they are a year or less then really I expect little (nothing) off of them this year. Fruit could form but the trees will be still establishing themselves and may be still weak.

Always difficult to say remove all fruit - I know I would not want to. If you leave one on it could easily drop off if the tree cannot manage to support it's production. In effect a good chance that you would get none in any case. Your decision.

Next year I would say consider leaving one or two on a tree. However as said the tree will generally drop what it cannot support -the infamous June Drop as it is called.

[new gardener 1052]

Thanks Kirk for your words of wisdom, I forgot to mention the scrumptious tree. That's also on M26. Not expecting much from that as it's brand new. Think it's in the same pollination group too.

Cherry trees ( Stella & sunburst) along with plum (Victoria) are full of leaf buds, also big swollen buds( I hope are fruit buds)

Steve.

[veggiechicken]

You're a lot later in Aberdeen than I am in South Wales. My Stella and Victoria have been flowering for a couple of weeks. However, none of the apples are - so I wouldn't worry that you haven't seen any blossom yet.

[new gardener 1052]

Thanks vg.

[Jungle Jane]

My little apple tree produced apples the same year I planted it but I didn't thin them at all,i think i had 5 or 6 apples,the following year some of my fruit had little brown spots on their skin like scab,the following year I thinned them like you should/did things properly & alls ok now. Do you think because I didn't thin them at all,the tree suffered that following year because of that,like the tree didn't have the energy to produce good apples?