Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Do apple trees have "off" years?

I have a few apple trees on the property, the last 2 years they produced boxes and boxes of apples.

This year though, between all three trees, they produced maybe 50 fruits total.

Is that normal for apple trees?

Yep. Cold wet spring, or a cold, wet snap, either during bloom time (grounded the bees; no pollination), or during early fruit stages (frost can/will kill either blooms or young fruit).

Happens 'round here (BIG TIME apple country) all the time.

Happened to my peach tree, this year, .......late frost, small crop. Think it bumps off the blossoms.

GTC

My Dads apple trees do quite well every year,but the peach and apricot trees seem to be an every other year crop.

Shooting Lady,
IF you are in California, do you recall any hard frost or freeze when the trees were blossoming or after they started to throw fruit?

How's the honey bee population been down your way?

Do they spray hard for mosquitoes in your area?

What is the approximate age of the apples trees and have they ever been pruned?..or did you prune them in late November..or did you prune them too late?

Apple trees can bear bushels of good fruit for thirty or more years IF they are husbanded well and properly..Pruning, spraying for borers and general watering and climatic conditions are also required.

Bees are essential for pollination and fruit production..I have noticed that this year was poor for honey bees..
We had a mild winter here on the west coast..hardly a frost let alone a freeze to damage fruit bearing trees when they were blossoming.
It's something else..
They still have a USDA extension office down where you live? Call them up and see if the issue is widespread or not...jim

My apple trees did fine but the wind took most of the cherry blossoms off before the bees could do their job. The good news is that my Asian pears are finally producing.

Hey
MAMA bear gets a ball bat and wacks our trees a few good wacks to stimulate the tree. according to Mrs bear it threatins the trees and they produce more because they get wacked in early spring before the leaves come out. it works <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
Bearbeater

Our trees are every other year.

Every other year for mine.

Yes. It is a little known fact that at random intervals the chemical ratios of the soil become unbalanced and it leads to unusual behavior in unmonitored orchards. Things not unlike the food fight in Animal House occur, saplings get hurt and wee little bits of sap fall to the ground. In some of the more serious events of this nature it has been reported that the apples actually fall up, instead of down. Nobody knows where they land, and we must all be grateful that Sir Isaac Newton wasn't in the orchard on such a day.

How are the plums doing? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

'Nother factor. I believe most nut/fruit bearing trees (and most all trees bear some kind of seed or fruit) periodically have "off" years of little or no production.

From a biological standpoint, this does serve to knock back populations of insect and disease pests around the tree that were built up during productive years. Even pine cone crops fail sometimes, resulting in the irruptions of crossbills and other northern finches south into the US in the winter time.

I dunno if the tendency for low years has been selected out of domestic varieties of apples or not.

Birdwatcher

stress is a factor...drought and such.

There can be several reasons for crop failure in apples, with frost, of course, being a prime one.

That said, alternating years was the norm for many apple varieties throughout history. Only in the early part of the 1900's were varieties developed that did not have alternating "heavy" and "light" years of cropping.

Most of the traditional varieties still have "off" years, even when grafted onto modern, virus free, dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock. The positive side of these old varieties is that they tend to be hardier and much less susceptible to various pests and diseases. That, and they taste better..... HTH, Dtuch.

.............If you can glom on to " burning slag", or the steel dust accumulated off a big grinder..............................this is an excellent source of Iron ...Fe...............and fruit tees love it,.............just work it in to the top mulch.

My " Water Wand", has payed off handsomely, in this tough caliche soil ( calling this soil is pretty extravagant)...and " Drip line" boundary .......3 ft deep, irrigation during the killer hot summer months seems to be worth the effort. One can feed with the thing too, with an attached feeder bottle, or just push those " feed stakes" down the hole left by irrigating.

Love this thread, ...................( kinda fond of those fresh tree ripened peaches, too).

GTC

If you really want them to produce... get some Orchard Mason Bees (linked).

Be carefull what you wish for though. These small non-aggressive hyper-pollinaters are very good at what they do. Very Good. Here's an example... a few years ago my father-in-law put on block in his backyard... the next year the little bees got all their trees cranking out the fruit... one tree produced so much the weight of the apples caused the tree to split!

I highly recommend getting a single block of them first.

Here is a great article on how to create modular housing for them. That way you don't have to buy them over and over again.

Here's an other good article

Jim,
There was no frost/freeze that I can recall, not for a couple years anyway. Actually the year we had some frost is when the apples did great -go figure.

I didn't notice a change in the honey bees . and they don't spray for mosquitoes in my area.

I don't know the exact age of the trees, they are old though
No one lived on the property for about 20 years. (or cared for the trees) About 3 years ago when we bought it, all three trees were HUGE, they were loaded with bushels of fruit.
Didn't get around to pruning them that year before the blossoms came, again the next year they made lots of fruit.

They didn't get pruned last year either, and now this... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Any tips on pruning them, when the time comes?

How did you know I had plums too? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Funny you should ask.. the plum tree has made exactly three plums in all of 3 years... it was pruned too. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Shooting Lady, Here's one copy-paste excerpt from many articles on the web concerning pruning apple trees;



Most commercial growers prune their apple orchard during the winter months. Farmers have more time on their hands in the winter, and the absence of leaves makes pruning easy. You can however, prune your apple trees in the spring before the flowers bloom. Pruning apples trees is essential to the health of the tree, to maximize the size of the apples, and to make picking easier. Too many apples on the tree results in plentiful, but smaller fruit.

For home gardeners, it is best to prune and trim apple trees from after harvest in the fall to late winter. But, you can prune them any time before blooming. After blooming begins, you risk knocking apples off the tree, reducing your harvest.

Prune off suckers and small branches, especially those that grow straight up from major branches. It is best to trim the tree so that major branches arch up away from the trunk. These branches will eventually droop downward somewhat. Top off the center (trunk) of the tree if you want to limit the overall growth of the tree. Also, remove some branches where the tree has grown too thick You want to leave plenty of room for the apples to grow, allow air circulation, and light to penetrate to the leaves. It also allow for more effective spraying of insecticides and fungicides.


Pruning is an annual event. Schedule it for early in the season before your gardening chores get into full gear. Or, pick a sunny winter day and go out and do some gardening!


Wwe used to prune so that we could reach all the apples with the standard orchard ladders..We didn't climb the trees to pick fruit..:)
Your older trees will benefit from pruning as it frees up more nutrition for fruit, opens up the tree to air & sun.
You may have some serious pruning work to do if they have not been attended to for a few years.
I woulds also check with a good feed store and selecta pesticide to use for apple borers and other insects which can stunt growth and fruit bearing..

We also used to thin the apple trees when they had first started to throw fruit and the apples were small..This enabled one to get larger nicer apples instead of a passle of small ones..We'd use a 3' broom handle with a 1 foot long piece of soft rubber hose on the end to lightly whack the apples we didn't want in the clusters off..:)
That's been a few years now..jim