Why has my apple tree not fruited this year?

[jubbly]

I planted it in 2010. It fruited and produced quite a decent crop of apples last year.

This year it suddenly bloomed into lots of blossom in April and looked as healthy as could be but there is no fruit. There were a few fruit buds but they fell off and never came to anything.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[lovinglife]

You did nothing wrong, I had the same problem this year as we had a late frost.

 

[jubbly]

I have noticed some of the leaves look brown and the tree is over shadowed by a large leilandii bushes at the bottom of the garden.

Part of me wonders if I have planted it in the wrong place. I will have to keep a close eye on it next year,.

 

[Tmann]

As lovinglife said it could have been a late frost. Here in the states we had a warm early spring this caused a lot of the trees to bud early then in April we had a hard frost which killed off lots of the buds.

 

[jubbly]

That probably is what happened. It did very well last year for a first year.

I will just prune it over the winter and then cut the ground around it with plenty of fresh compost early next year.

 

[Amalia]

I planted it in 2010. It fruited and produced quite a decent crop of apples last year.

This year it suddenly bloomed into lots of blossom in April and looked as healthy as could be but there is no fruit. There were a few fruit buds but they fell off and never came to anything.

What am I doing wrong?

You didn't do anything wrong. It was a very bad year for apple trees. I got nothing this year from mine. The pears however were fine.

 

[jubbly]

Funny that because I was between a pear and an apple tree when I bought it. I decided on the apple tree because apples are more versatile when they crop, i.e. apple sauce. apple pies etc. But I prefer to eat pears to be honest.

I now have a large gap in my garden where I have uprooted an old bush so I may put a pear tree there.

Any recommendations?

 

[Amalia]

Planting a pear tree is exactly the same as planting an apple tree. Here are some tips:

http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/fruit_veg_diary/fruit_veg_mini_project_september_2c_apple.asp
http://www.ehow.com/how_2073381_plant-pear-tree.html

 

[kate23]

It's not uncommon for young apple trees to skip a year in fruiting. And even older apple trees can fruit in alternate years, it's called biennial bearing, I believe. Apples and pears are notorious for it. You say that it produced a pretty good crop last year, and then none this year, that tends to happen with biennial bearing. There are a few causes causes of biennial bearing, frost being one of them, as someone else already mentioned. Good news is, it may have an extra heavy crop next year to make up for it. It sure is disappointing though, I hate waiting and waiting for fruit and none not getting any

 

[loopyloo]

My apple tree seems to have great years followed by bad years. This year we were over run with apples. Last year we had like 5. Im still rtying to figure out what to do with all of them. I wish we were neighbors. I could share my bumper crop with you.
My best guess is that all the apples we didnt get last year left resources in the tree for this year and it was able to give us two years worth of fruit. It was sure fun but Im trying not to get my hopes up for a great year next year. Now back to my dehydrator to see what I can save from it. Ha ha ha

 

[lovinglife]

hmmmm that reminds me, I need to fertilize my fruit trees next year.....