We have 2 trees in our garden,one produces Katy apples which are in an abundance and the other is a hybrid which for the last 2-3 years now produces next to nothing. We have tried pruning this tree but still nothing and was wondering whether anyone had any tips/remedies we could try please?
You don't know the name of the one that needs help? That might help to understand the problem. One possibility is a pollination problem. Obviously your productive apple is getting pollinated. Does the other one bloom later when it's the only tree in the area in bloom? Or, perhaps the first question should be.... Does it bloom normally? If it has abundant flowers but sets very few fruits that's one thing. If it only flowers sparsely in the first place, that's a different problem.
Steve
Maybe you're pruing too hard. The fruit grows on last year's growth.
You don't say where you live or if you have had your soil tested. When we lived in Arkansas, they had a gardening expert come on the TV at the same time on the same day each week and answer questions. When asked that one, he always replied "you need to add a super phosphate to the soil around the tree, rose bush", or whatever wasn't blossoming. Maybe you should have the soil tested and that not being the case, I would check and see if they blossom together as mentioned above. I have heard that there are only two or three apple trees that don't need pollinators blooming at the same time (one being the golden delicious). This year my golden delicious bloomed, but didn't put on anything. The Fuji bloomed and put on two apples (it is not big enough to do much more, and we had late frosts here that got the plums, peaches, cherries, and I presume, apples).
Dwayne
Dwayne
Thank you for the replies - to answer those who in turn queried - we live in Edinburgh,Scotland and have not had the soil tested;do not think the tree has a name,as I said it is a hybrid with 3 different types of apples,1 cooking the other 2 eating and it does flower at more or less the same time as the other one but they do not flourish to fruit and finally I do not feel we are pruning too hard. So as you can see quite a problem!
I don't know how they rate your fertilizer in Scotland. Here they rate it
10-10-10, 5-10-10, and so on. The first number is the percent of nitrogen content, the second is the phosphate indicator, and I believe the last is sulfate. The super phosphate I spoke of is 0-46-0 or higher. Don't put it down until you have confirmed that your soil needs it.Some years the weather plays an important part in what your trees do. I don't know about apples, but I do know that if the winter temp gets to -16 F and stays for longer than 45 minutes, the flower buds on peach trees will freeze and you will get no blooms.
Dwayne
Fert numbers refer to the concentration of N-P-K, the chemical symbols for nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.
....... I wouldn't bother with that. Your other tree is normal so your soil is good enough.
.......That doesn't make it a hybrid, that makes it a tree with 3 grafts. So the tree doesn't have a name but the 3 varieties grafted onto it would have a name if you knew what was grafted on. That doesn't matter much at this point. I thought maybe it was one of the varieties that has to get older to produce or had special pollination needs. Since there are actually 3 varieties involved, the problem is something else.
....... Maybe your tree that does produce well is a variety that tends to produce well on a small/young tree. Maybe the other tree isn't and just needs to get bigger to produce well. You didn't say if these trees are young, or older trees with some size.
How does the 3 variety tree look? Is it as healthy looking as the other? Are the leaves as nice and green as your other tree? The leaves aren't smaller and stunted are they?
Steve
I agree Steve. If he has a full size tree and a tree on dwarf rootstock, the dwarf will bear fruit a few years before the full size tree.
Sherw> gdd001 wrote:
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