Help. All our fruit is falling off

[alan4heidi]

Only been growing fruit for 2 years, and this year our apple tree [ 4 years old ] flowered fantastic. however this week all the leaves and fruit fell off, not a single apple left on . same problem in the fruit cage, with cherries and plums all on the ground, what have I done wrong. any help very welcome , thank you heidi

[Guest]

Fruit fall this time of year is normal 'June drop'. A tree will just shed what it can not support. Unfortunately the weather has not been kind this year for fruit trees. I had a good set this year but the late hard frost done some in and then the hot start has done the rest in. I doubt I will even bother picking the wild cherry the fruit is so thin and patchy

I would be a little concerned about the leaf drop though. I would like to think it is heat and lack of water. However, there may be disease or pest probs. If you post some pics of the trees and the dropped leaves it might give peeps an idea of what is going on.

[Kirk]

June drop is kund of normal, well at least on apples. Loss of he leaves sounds odd however.
The weather may have something to do with it, it has been exceptionally dry in some areas - you have no location so not possible to suggest if it could be this. April around here had if I recall 0.3mm of rain, so unless things were watered then an apple in shallow ground or with shallow roots (dwarfing rootstock) will have suffered.

At present the ground is basically baking.

Sometimes it is advantageous to remove some of the smaller apples in a bunch before the tree sheds them. The tree may just shed the whole bunch, whereas if you leave say 2 then it may keep them.

My cherries have been falling off for a few weeks, but the birds seem determined to knock them off. They are not ripe but the birds (starlings) are apparently deliberately getting them off - have sat and watched them. At least the blackbirds are reasonably happy. Especcially the fledgling ones tht are running around.

I seem to have no plums this year - slightly puzzling.

I would suspect the odd weather this year, no real frosts so early blossom and then no water. The small apple tree with apples is in a new bed that is slightly raised and has affed compost and something resembling mulch on/in it - I shredded a tree pr three. So it seems to have done reasonable. Also it is likely to get a bag or two of compost added to it soon to raise the depth and act as a retaining material. The compost I used seemd to have manure in with it that helps the moisture side.

[alan4heidi]

photos of leafs

Thanks for all your replies , here are two photos of the apple tree leafs as they are now, no fruit left on the tree, the other trees in the fruit cage look healthy as far as leafs go but hardly any fruit and what there was has dropped off/ raspberries look hard and a bit grey. blueberries and logan berries look ok. main concern is for the apple tree.

[Jungle Jane]

Have you checked over the bark for any cracks,when my plum tree started acting strange,I found a crack low down in the tree,it could be the reason for early leaf drop I don't know,it was extra windy the other week. Could be weather related,insects could be involved too sucking sap & causing brown areas,it could be a couple of things going on at the same time,insects love apple leaves but I've never lost fruit because of them,aphids have had a go on my apple tree but I saw a hoverfly nymph on it the other day