Topic: No fruit on trees this year? :-(

[sawfish]

Tons of fruit this year, hardly any last year and tons the year before that. I'm expecting nothing next year if the trend continues.

Gonna pile the bonemeal up at the base of my fruit this autumn.

[thifasmom]

we acquired 2 very old apple trees 5 yrs ago when we moved here and the crops off of them were fairly decent but with small fruits and lots of insect damage (only kept for shade they cast in a lovely relaxing area), but last year WOW :o they cropped an enormous amount of medium size apples (they were a little to sharp for me, but the kids loved them (must be a cider apple as they made a lovely juice when they were juiced). Also for the first time there was very little insect damage, almost nonexistent. we collect as much as we could and what we couldnot reach the birds enjoyed the bumper crop, (we even saw for the first time bull finches, redcap and a redwing visit us for all those that we couldnot get at the top of the tree ;D).

this year well it will be a completely different story, first observation was the lack of blossom in the spring, what ever fruit did form most have fallen off or rotted like in years gone by. We thought the old trees had simply exhausted themselves last year but my neighbour also observed a drop in his production and his trees are not more than 6/7 yrs old.

maybe there is a trend it would be interesting to see if it is regional, i am in kent by the way.

[saddad]

Biennial bearing is a known problem, but the decline in Bee populations may be having an impact too.  ???

[thifasmom]

i think the declining bee population is definitely a factor, certainly this year the bumble bee population was way lower than last year and the weather was worst last year so it could not just been the weather that kept them away. but my tree barely had flowers to be pollinated where as my neighbour had loads, so the ? his problem might have been to low pollination, and mine was probably due to what you said about Biennial bearing, never heard of it so i will google to learn more. thanks for the info.

[Tyke]

Have had some time off this week so i went walking around Milton Keynes looking for fruit. There are a lot of fruit trees in public areas. Got bags of apples and elderberries. Lots of sloes and rosehips gathered too. The pears are still ripening though, and the blackberries need another week or two.

Seen a lot of bees this year around the place, but not sure if they are the right ones for pollination or not. There are a lot of "wild" areas here around with flowers so maybe it helps???

I have to say that i used to live nearer to London (Herts) and virtually never saw bees or butterflies. Lots of them round here this year.

[Robert_Brenchley]

There are no 'wrong' bees for pollination, unless they're wasps. They all use pollen as a main food source for the grubs, so they're all involved.

[hopalong]

My gage tree produced a glut of fruit last year but the crop looks like being feeble this year. Maybe it's because the tree needs a rest.  Or maybe it's because the leaves are covered in greenfly and have curled up. We don't seem to have quite so many ladybirds and lacewings this year to keep the greenfly under control. :-[

Apples, pears, gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries are now all fruiting beautifully. The "autumn" raspberries are already producing loads of fruit. Currants - black, red and white - are not so good but I only planted them this year.  There are now about 20 developed fruits on the gage tree (pathetic) and 10 on the Victoria plum (even more pathetic). A bit of a mystery to me.

Got home from holiday last week and the pathetic crop of plums had rotted on the tree, while the gages seemed to have disappeared altogether. Good apple and pear crops though, despite a bad attack of rust and blackened leaves on the pear tree..

[KittyKatt]

I had a total of 2 apples this year. no plums, gages. pears or cherries at all, although there was a little pear blossom. I wasn't expecting very much, as they are very young trees. I have got loads of bees though. I sowed borage at strategic points, as the bees love it!
KK

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've got loads of borage as well, you're right about bees liking it. It tends to self-seed and run wild all over the place, but it's easily pulled out.

[gordonsveg]

I live in Devon and i have got huge great pears and coxs apples, maybe about 30% down but not bad. 8) 8)