A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2004 apple trees

I have 2 apple trees that were purchased and planted about 4-5 years ago. I don't remember what the names of the apples are, but when I bought them at a reputable nursery, I was assured that they would pollinate one another. The first 2 years the harvest was sparse, the next two years the squirrels got the apples before I could, and LAST year I had an abundance of blossoms and lots of tiny apples. But most of them fell off the tree before they matured. From dozens of blossoms on both trees the number of mature apples numbered 11 on one tree and 9 on the other. What can I do to get a good harvest this year?

sound's like you need to prune your trees so that you can get air flow, that will let them pollinate and produce fruit insted of folage. also try putting alum. pie pans in your trees too spook off those pesty squirrels[tree rats]

There's an excellent little book called :the Backyard Orchardist" by Stella Otto. She did a good job with the subject of pruning. It covers most fruits. It's available at the Seed Savers Exchange .
Rick

Isn't there something about if you say for example have 20 blossoms on a branch and you really want to have 3 or 5 or 7 big apples, then you are supposed to pull or snip off those extra flower/buds and let the tree concentrate on just growing a selected number of fruits.


HI Sarahm by the way!!
Welcome aboard!!
Do you have anymore fruiting items or plants??
Just curious!
Weezie

With so much fruit set, you need to thin the fruits. Apples prefer roughly a 5 inch spacing with only 1 fruit per cluster, so pull the rest off ASAP. Each fruit needs the work of about 40 leaves for nourishment. It may seem like you are wasting a lot of fruits, but a full crop consists of only a 5% fruit set.