This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Dying fruit on new apple tree
JennyMc
Posts: 11
0
JennyMc
Posts: 11
JennyMc
Posts: 11
JennyMc
Posts: 11
JennyMc
Posts: 11
Posts
Hi there,
I'm a very new gardener and recently planted an blossoming apple tree (limelight) in our garden that we bought from a garden centre.
after the blossom had finished small apples started to appear and have continued to get bigger over the past 3 weeks or so.
today I have seen that some of the small apples have fallen off the tree (including the stem) and most that remain are shrivelled and soft. I've checked the leaves and whilst a few of them have been nibbled, the are no signs of any bug communities forming (Aside from 1 greenfly).
A point to note is that we haven't used any sprays as yet. I have attached some photos - can anyone offer advice? Needs more watering/too much watering/disease etc??
thanks in advance - hope I can still look forward to apple pie in September...
jenny
A few more pics to show the siting of the tree and a view of the leaves - you may need to tilt your heads - apologies!
It's quite normal. It's called June drop, when a proportion of the apples fall off. Sadly you will notice it much more on a new tree as there aren't many clusters of apples.
Later you can remove any apples that are diseased or don't look perfect. This is the first year and many people remove every apple to encourage the tree to establish without putting its energy into fruit production.
Fantastic - thanks you! Panic over
Jenny, if you can get BBC i-player, see if you can find last week's edition of the Beechgrove garden, where a full explanation of the June drop is given!! I have had it too with my pears. Out of two trees, I have three pears now
, but tbh I am more bothered that they put on some strong growth for the future!!
One thing I've noticed is you don't have a stake for your tree. With some root-stocks the tree will have to be staked throughout its life.