Poor fruit tree crop
BobFlannigon
Posts: 619
I've had only a handful of apples and plums this year, and on two of my plum trees nothing at all. Admittedly the trees are still small but that's still a lot fewer than last year.
I thought it was birds eating the tiny fruit or buds but I don't really recall that happening before. Our neighbour has a very large apple tree that doesn't appear to have many on it either. I would have thought if the birds got to it they've have had all of them. Do slugs ever do damage to the buds/flowers/young fruit? Again, I don't remember this ever being a problem.
Anyone got any thoughts? Is it just a poor year for fruit? We're in Wiltshire, we've had a very good summer this year, best for a long time actually. I don't remember last winter being exceptionally cold nor do I remember spring being abnormally cold or dry/wet (though that doesn't mean it wasn't)
Posts
I'm in Flintshire on havy clay soil.
My apples are looking good, my green gage just about OK and a medlar very good.
But my Victoria plum has had very few fruits; we had the wettest winter for 10 years, no particular events but well above average rain for every month from November to April. I'm told that Victoria's don't like it too wet.
I had no fruit at all on two pear trees despite a reasonable show of flowers. My quince also flowered fairly well, but I only have one fruit.
At Tatton, I asked the the lady from the RHS about it and she thought it was down to lack of feeding.
So that's what I will do next March
I'm in Essex on clay and have had much the same problem. No pears, very few apples and plums. Lots of soft fruit though. I didn't have blossom either so it's not because of anything eating buds or things not getting pollinated. I did wonder whether after the very mild winter the trees just never worked out when spring had arrived so didn't form blossom.
We are in North Shropshire. Apples, very good crop, but a lot of Codlin moth (could not Winter spray as the wind never dropped) and Scab.Plums very poor, both Victoria and Margaret. Damsons well down n normal crop and not ripe yet. Medlar very good and Quince, nothing. Pears ok but again scabby. We had very cold wind when the Plums were in blossom. too cold for the bees.
Strange though that the Wild plum down the lane has the best crop on it for years.
Last edited: 05 September 2016 12:37:52
I'm in East Lothian. Moved into this house last year with an established apple tree. Buckets of apples last year.
This year, 2 bits of blossom and 8 apples. That's it.
I've bought my daughter two pet rabbits this year and found out their favourite snack is a branch off the apple tree. They absolutely love it. I give them a 1m branch each day and they eat every leaf and strip the bark back to nothing. I suspect we will have very few apples going forward, now.