A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 2 apple tree questions for you.

I purhased a flowering crabapple this year(rudolph)and want to know why I have no apples from where the flowers were? also I purchased a 5 in 1 apple tree and it is doing so well that the branches are too low from the apples growing on it, can I just pluck some of them off? Thanks in advance.

Hi Tamara.....

Your Flowering Crabapple should have formed orange-yellow fruit after it flowered....so something happened to prevent this. Did you have a cold spell or high winds that might have caused the blooms to fall prematurely? Unfortunately....you will not have fruit this year.....sigh.....but hopefully you will the next.

You certainly can remove some of the apples off the branches of your other tree. This actually is a good thing to do. It allows the remaining fruit to have the space to develop....and there will be less chance of damage to the branches if they are not weighed down.

Good luck
Barb
barbsblooms@shaw.ca

Thanks flower(barb), we did have high winds and the flowers did fade right after. that's probably why i have nothing on it. I will pluck half my five in one (apples that is) i am scared the branches are going to break.

What is a five in one apple tree? Do you need a second to pollinate it? I found a seed germinating in a green apple year and half ago, planted it in my window sill until spring and planted it outside. It is taller than me now but I heard somewhere that I'd need a second one somewhere near to pollinate each other. Anyone know if this is true for this tree? :p

Furlongarmer,

A five in one apple tree is an example of multiple-variety trees that have 5 varieties of apples grafted into a single trunk and rootsock. A 3 in 1 or 4 in one or 5 in 1 tree gets you a selection of apple tree (and pollination as well).

All apples require pollination although most will set adequate fruits on their own, but will set more fruits if pollinated by other variety.

If you have only one tree and your neighbor has a pollinating variety, you don't need to plant another one. If your tree is not bearing, you can graft a branch from another variety into it, or place a fresh bouquets from another variety (in a can of water) at the base of your tree. Don't use bouquets from a triploid.

Certain varieties (triploids) are pollen sterile (ex: Gravenstein or Winesap)and do not produce fertile pollens and will not fertilize their own flowers or those of other apples.

What variety is your green apple?

Source: Sunset Western Garden Book

also a good thing to spray tree with preen in spring before tree wakes up so kills lots of pests.a good rule of thumb is no more than 5 fruit to a branch.I have to thin my peaches out.some trees will set heavy fruit one year and light fruit the next& some trees are short lived like peach trees.I have a crabapple tree the apples get a lil red,been munching on them already,was a light year,excited for next year& also dressed the tree up some letting wisteria climb through it for a cool bloom display as they bloom at same time