Problem with my fruit trees not flowering

[littlelemon]

This is the third spring for our apple and pear trees. When we bought the trees several of them were flowering, and we even had a few baby apples that first year we planted them.

Last year we had blooms, but only a few apples, and only one apple that we could eat in the fall.

I thought that this year would be the year that we finally got some fruit. HOWEVER, this year we only had one tree bloom! And only one branch on the whole tree bloomed! We did have a late frost, but would that have prevented blooming from taking place? I know that a freeze can kill a blossom, but can it actually prevent a tree from forming buds?

I am confused and upset. I am starting to worry that something else is wrong with my trees. We planted our orchard in a corner of our yard that is near a conventional farm field. I am starting to get paranoid that the herbicide that is sprayed on the fields in the spring is drifting over to my trees and maybe that's why they didn't bloom. I mean, why would 6 trees not bloom AT ALL?

Does anyone here have any insight for me?

 

[Dixiedoodle]

What varities of fruit trees do you have? With many varities need pollenator varieties to use for pollenation. There must be at least to different var. blooming at the same time!

Next question is; Do you have enough bees? You really need lots of bees to pollinate fruit trees. What a difference they have made in my garden, vineyard and orchard!

Maybe a hard freeze or frost==what zone are you in?

 

[littlelemon]

Dixie,

It's not a pollintation issue, it is a flowering issue! I have had fruit when they flowered, but why would they not flower at all? Also, I have to add that I noticed other fruit trees in my area flowering, so I don't think it was a frost/freeze issue, though I did consider that.


My pears are bartlett and anjou
My apples are jonathon, granny smith, golden delicious

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

Could you describe your pruning methods?

What do you fertilize with and how often?

Also, what zone are you in?

 

[littlelemon]

Could you describe your pruning methods?

What do you fertilize with and how often?

Also, what zone are you in?

I am in zone 5. I haven't pruned at all, I didn't think they were large enough to prune (when do you start to prune? My trees are dwarf stock and are about 6' tall at the very tip-top). All I do for fertilizer is dump some composted chicken manure around the base of the tree a few times a year.

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[patandchickens]

Is it possible that a) they're just late (I would not worry til after everyone else's apples have finished), or b) you had an unusually cold, or fairly-cold-with-prolonged-wind, spell last winter that winterkilled theflower buds. Those would be the 'usual suspects'.

GOod luck,

Pat

 

[ams3651]

My grandmother has a bartlet and it seems to be more frost sensitive than my apples. Just my 2 cents.

Am I wrong but when I worked at an orchard market in high school I think they would pick off the apples when they formed the first few years to give the tree more of the nutrients??

 

[Mossy Rock]

We have four apple trees they are doing wonderful this year. One year I pruned them back so the next year was very minimal production, another year my wife dumped chicken manurer, wood chicks around the trees while they were flowering well enough said no apples, we give the apples manurer while they are not in the fruit bearing stage and have had great results, this year my apples are already getting a shade of red, we have 3 different varietys.

 

[Beekissed]

I have an orchard of about 15 trees of assorted types. Last year we had blooms galore except for one of the trees, where the blooms were scarce. That tree produced a few, very large apples. My red delicious and Grimes goldens were absolutely LOADED with apples but they were small to medium in size. We topped a few of the trees here and there, pruned a little, no fertilizer applied. The Red Delicious and Grimes Goldens (these we did nothing to) had scanty blooms and look to have scanty apples this year. The tree that had few blooms last year was loaded this year and will be loaded with apples(it looks to be a Granny Smith). I don't know much about apple trees but maybe they take stages of production and some years they kind of rest and recuperate? That being said, my mother has several apple trees she planted about 12 years ago that are big and hearty and hardly ever bloom or produce apples. The only one that does is the one that got badly damaged its second year. It is now the biggest and best looking, but still only produces scanty apples!

My trees are old and established, so I don't know if this info helps you with your young trees.

 

[wailingbanshee]

I don't know where you are, but here in northern UT there are few trees blooming of any kind. The weather has just been too crazy.

Yes, a freeze could have killed the buds and the winds that came with the storm might have blown them away. We have one tree that blooms almost every year. None on it this year.

Another thing. According to St. Lawrence Nursery, if you live somewhere that has hard winters, dwarf trees will put all of their energy in just staying alive so it is better to plant semi-dwarf or full sized trees in those areas.

We have one tree that finally had a few blossoms on it this year. I think it is at least 6 years old. It had fireblight a few years ago and we cut down half of it, that part eventually died but one of the branches survived and developed into a nice tree.

I wouldn't worry yet about your trees. They are probably trying to figure out what this crazy weather is doing and in the meantime, thinking about growing a nice root system!