Apple Trees Not Flowering
Question from Sonia:
I have two low-chill apple trees. One is “Anna” and the other is “Dorset Golden.” These trees usually flower in winter and again in summer but this summer they failed to bloom. Why?
Answer from Pat:
The reason your ‘Anna’ and ‘Dorset Golden’ apple trees did not bloom a second this summer is probably the result of the weather. Or it could result from not doing any summer pruning. Usually, ‘Anna’ and ‘Dorset Golden’ bloom in late winter or early spring and then they bloom again in summer, but it all depends on temperatures. Sometimes ‘Anna’ and ‘Dorset Golden’ bloom as early as December and unfortunately even though ‘Dorset Golden’ is sold as a pollinator for ‘Anna’, it often blooms a little later than ‘Anna’, but ‘Ein Shemier’ blooms at the same time as ‘Anna’ and thus is a better pollinator for it. In mid-summer, as you have pointed out, ‘Anna’ and ‘Dorset Golden’ often bloom again.
Here is a fun project you might like to try. Purchase a recording thermometer and set it up in the garden next to the trees. Then keep a diary of night and day high and low temperatures. By recording these for a few years you could find out how many degrees of difference from day and night temperatures these trees need in order to bloom in summer. (It might be just night temperatures that do the job, since that is the factor on winter chill hours, or it might possibly be the difference between high and low temps.)
August pruning also promotes flowering with these two varieties. August is the correct time to cut off the water sprouts (suckers) that spring up like buggy whips from the main scaffold branches in the center of the tree. If one takes off these water sprouts as one always should do, then this action sometimes makes the tree flower. If this job has been neglected for years, the water sprouts will grow tall and strong and become like trees within trees bearing many spurs and much of the fruit on the tree. On these neglected trees, these overgrown and bearing water sprouts should at least be shortened in August. If one shortens them in August this action will always force immediate blooms on the existing spurs left on the tree. Additionally, if one is growing these two low-chill varieties as espaliers, this is the time to shorten the spurs that grow up from the branches, since otherwise they will shoot to the sky. When one cuts off down these tall whiplike stems, the older spurs that remain further down will immediately flower. It is still not too late to do your August pruning. (See also the information on this subject in my organic book on page 290.)
hi pat I have two apple trees on a south facing wall this is their second year, first year we had about a dozen fruit but this year we have had no blossom at all and no fruit, we did prune them in October but mainly to get them into a good shape [ie a fan] but our neighbour who has well established trees has had no blooms either.Our pear tree purchased and planted the same year as the apples was loaded with blossom and now loaded with fruit any ideas?
Yes I have ideas but need more information. Specifically where do you live? And what varieties of apple are you and your neighbor growing? We need to make sure you purchased the correct variety of apple for your climate zone. Also, vagaries of temperature this year, due I believe to global warming, have prevented leafing out of fruit trees here and there across the country. But in your case you did not mention lack of leaves, only flowers. One possibility is that you cut off the flower buds when you pruned in fall. Another is that they froze off during winter. (This could happen if you planted a variety that is not hardy in your climate. Additionally, if you are espaliering your trees you really should not allow your immature trees to put energy into producing fruit until you have fully trained them into the shape you desire. The espalier process, also, sometimes slows down fruiting. For example, you might be cutting off the wood that has produced spurs. Spurs are short sections of mature wood that bear the fruiting buds and subsequently the apples on apple trees. However, unless your neighbor made the same mistake and pruned off the old productive spur wood, the fact that he also got no flowers on a mature tree sounds as if in both cases a late cold snap killed the flower buds. Do you remember a late cold snap with very low temps? Most pear varieties need plenty of winter chill and most of them are very winter hardy. Therefore your pears produced fruit with no problem even if a severe drop in temperature might have killed the buds on your apple trees.
Hi, We live in Banning, Ca. We had high temp’s this winter and it seems to have affected a few of our fruit trees? Our peach tree had few blooms, our gala apple tree had hardly any as well (it has 1 bloom right now)! Last year we got a decent amount of fruit for the size of our trees (they are young trees). I remember in Jan-Feb. this year we had a few days getting close to 80*. Is this the reason? I worried I might have pruned them badly.
I am hearing from many readers in many regions across the country that their deciduous fruit trees have had problem leafing out and also, in some cases, problems bearing flowers and fruit. In other cases, leaves are burned and flowers drop off. I believe all these problems are caused by abnormal temperatures, sometimes too cold at night and at other times too hot in the daytime at the wrong time of year. Drought has been yet another problem. I believe global warming is the larger cause of your problems with fruit trees and not incorrect pruning. However, try to prune as correctly as possible. Always refer to a pruning manual or look on line at the charts and info provided by the University Extension for California.