Fruit Trees - No Fruit this Year?

[MarkF48]

Up in the Northeast.....

Last year I had a banner year and was giving apples away to friends. This year is altogether different and while the apples, peaches, and even a crabapple had good blossoms, the apple trees appear not have any fruit, the peaches are really sparse, and the crabapple doesn't seem to have anything. I had not seen much in the way of bees this for pollination this spring and in subsequent months and am wondering if this might be part of the problem, which is pretty bothersome if this is a trend. I had watched an eye opening documentary a while back about the diminishing bee population.
Wondering how everyone else is doing or if my lack of fruit is isolated instance. If you have bee hives it might be worth mentioning as a comparison to those like myself who don't.

 

[KretZ]

Same here with the zuchinni, we started manually transferring the pollen with a q-tip and now we have zuchinni coming out of our ears....

 

[Clint S]

Took a 4 mile walk yesterday and only 1 in 10 trees had apples. As far as bees, when walking the wild flowers on the side of the road seemed to be covered with them.

 

[boggen]

last year peach tree only produced 2 dozen if that. there was some heavy cold winds during blooming and ripped most of the blooms off.

this year it is looking good.

 

[Tollster]

Could be a number of factors such as late frost, which seem more common in the past.

this was one in the last five years we didn't have one, and the super spring growth reflected it county wide.. My apples are awesome this year..

We had plenty of wild bee's, I can hear them working the pears, and the honey locust tree when they flower, one of the coolest sounds all spring, because there are just so many... I always try the line of sight, but its just hard to get a bearing on where they're flying to and from.. one of these days I'll find the honey pot...

 

[CalG]

Up in the Northeast.....

Last year I had a banner year and was giving apples away to friends. This year is altogether different and while the apples, peaches, and even a crabapple had good blossoms, the apple trees appear not have any fruit, the peaches are really sparse, and the crabapple doesn't seem to have anything. I had not seen much in the way of bees this for pollination this spring and in subsequent months and am wondering if this might be part of the problem, which is pretty bothersome if this is a trend. I had watched an eye opening documentary a while back about the diminishing bee population.
Wondering how everyone else is doing or if my lack of fruit is isolated instance. If you have bee hives it might be worth mentioning as a comparison to those like myself who don't.

Here in S. VT it is similar. One of our two pear trees is about barren after a good yield last season. AND...just the opposite for the tree right next to it. (Different varieties). The peach trees have fruit, but nothing to thin. If every fruit ripens, we will have some for the table (4-5 year old trees)

The small fruits are doing VERY WELL!. Don;t get too hung up on bees, (though more were observed this spring than in previous years). there are many many pollinators.

A cool and rainy couple of days can really knock down the flowers if they fall on just the wrong time.

 

[bcjmmac]

I second the weather remarks. We have a "thin" looking crop this year despite having 8 bee hives within 100 yds of the orchard. What we did have was a late frost combined with cold/wet weather during blooming.

 

[wjmst]

That's funny. Last few years we haven't had much in the way of apples. This year our trees are loaded with them! Blueberries are good, but no pears, hazelnut, or plums.

 

[kcflhrc]

Our 2 apple trees are loaded. The apricot tree had maybe 5 and the pear tree just a few also. They sprayed the field south of us across the highway and I think some of the weed killer made it to our trees. Not happy

 

[oldballs]

With 20 assorted trees in my orchard and the other common trees around my place the past 40 years, it has been my experience that some years weird things happen. Bumper crops one year, fair crop another and occasionally no crop and it varies with the species. Another example is pests such as bag worms or tomato horn worms....one year we'll have a lot and other years hardly any or none at all. Only Mother Nature knows the real answer as far as I can tell.
Cheers,
Mike

 

[Jstpssng]

Last year the orchard I prune had hardly any macs, but some of the later apples were fine. The owner blamed it on excessive rain during the mac bloom which kept the bees from working. Downstate where bloom is earlier they had a great crop... could that have been the case with you?

 

[oosik]

When we moved here 32 years ago I planted 15 fruit trees - apples, pears, cherries, peaches & apricot. It became obvious, right away, that soft fruit were not going to do well here. I was told it was due to the cold temps in the late spring when the trees were in bloom. Anyhow, after five years I had only apples. I noticed with the apples - every other year would have good crops and the off year was very poor or nonexistent. Its not uncommon to get snow & freezing rain when the trees are in bloom and I know this seriously affects the crop.

As the trees got older this condition became more pronounced. Last year was supposed to be a good year and it was not.

I pulled all the remaining trees and have now replaced with young trees. I'll see how this goes in a few years.

I've also been told the manner in which the trees produce has a lot to do with the way you prune every year. Soo - I took a class in tree pruning and I'll see if that help too.

I've noticed a dramatic decline in wild bees over the years and am sure this does not help the situation either.

This good year/bad year also affects the old apple trees on an old abandoned homestead about a mile away.

 

[SPIKER]

my Pear trees last year were so loaded I lost a half dozen branches & one tree fell over (uprooted) from the weight. The Apple and Peach had OK years but this year not a peach one. maybe a dozen apple and the Pear look to be 1/8th as many pears. The Plumb are not loaded like in the past either.

I think we had frost 2 years ago that wiped them all out, there was late frost this year but only the low height trees got it... The Pear TOPS have most of the fruits on them and the Plumb are close together so those are OK vs others.

Mark

 

[MossRoad]

I have about a dozen fruit trees of various kinds in my yard, plus grapes and berries. We lost on nectarine tree over the winter. It froze solid. 2nd one was heavly damaged with maybe 20% of leaves that is should have. Peach tree was the same way. Only about 6 blossoms on it this spring. NO blossoms on apricot trees. Maybe 20% of normal blossoms on pears and apples.

However, grapes and raspberries are going like gangbusters. Strawberries are marginal. It was a rough winter, indeed.

 

[Jstpssng]

I have about a dozen fruit trees of various kinds in my yard, plus grapes and berries. We lost on nectarine tree over the winter. It froze solid. 2nd one was heavly damaged with maybe 20% of leaves that is should have. Peach tree was the same way. Only about 6 blossoms on it this spring. NO blossoms on apricot trees. Maybe 20% of normal blossoms on pears and apples.

However, grapes and raspberries are going like gangbusters. Strawberries are marginal. It was a rough winter, indeed.

I was told once to paint apricot and peach trees with white latex paint to reflect early spring sunshine so that they don't start to bud out as early... therefore aren't as susceptible to late freezes.

 

[MossRoad]

It was 22 below Zero here this winter. We had 20 days below zero this winter, when 5 days is the normal average. It was our 6th coldest winter on record. And we had 106" of snow. The trees just plain froze. There were no buds to be susceptible to late freezes or frosts. They froze off back in Jan, Feb and March. BRRRRR!!!!!! :laughing:

 

[Jstpssng]

^ ^ Yep, that'll do it. :thumbdown:

 

[whistlepig]

Our apple trees got bit by a late frost this spring and no apples. Even the hedge apple trees are fruitless this year. It was a rough winter here. I am not seeing near as many rabbits and deer this year as in seasons passed.

 

[MossRoad]

Our apple trees got bit by a late frost this spring and no apples. Even the hedge apple trees are fruitless this year. It was a rough winter here. I am not seeing near as many rabbits and deer this year as in seasons passed.

My neighbor has a game camera that we move around between our two properties. From about the middle of January until about the first week of March, we saw ZERO animal tracks in the snow. ZERO. We usually have fox, deer, squirrels, cats, birds, etc... but for those six weeks NOTHING was moving. Very strange.

 

[whistlepig]

It was a very hard winter for us. Worst I can remember since the blizzard of '1978.