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Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: mutty042130 on June 16, 2012, 17:23:53

Title: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: mutty042130 on June 16, 2012, 17:23:53
Hi my apple and pear trees have not a single fruit on this year after a bumper crop last year Is it just me or weather this year ? anyone else having a bad year fruit wise ?
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: chriscross1966 on June 16, 2012, 17:30:48
THe cold snap in April after the warm March probably put paid to most of that sort of fruit...
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Squashman on June 16, 2012, 17:39:58
It was the cold snap, I lost all but 8 pears from my 4 trees, no greengage but plenty of plums, cherries and apples.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: RenishawPhil on June 16, 2012, 17:41:18
It has been a very good year so far for gooseberrys and red/black currents.

Fruit trees are okish to
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: small on June 16, 2012, 18:25:46
There is barely a fruit on my Bramleys. I normally pick in the hundreds of pounds from them....it's going to be a quiet Autumn. :'(  Worst crop in the 28 years we've been here.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Borlotti on June 16, 2012, 18:33:04
Last year I was giving my apples away, froze alot for apple sauce, pies, wish I had frozen more, as this year don't think I will get any, but maybe the tree is having a year off, and next year will be better.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on June 16, 2012, 19:09:40
I've got so many apples on mine I'm going to have to thin them. The plums are no good though.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: RenishawPhil on June 16, 2012, 19:14:43
Quote from: Borlotti on June 16, 2012, 18:33:04
Last year I was giving my apples away, froze alot for apple sauce, pies, wish I had frozen more, as this year don't think I will get any, but maybe the tree is having a year off, and next year will be better.

Indeed doesn't do any harm. When I lived at home we had an old apple tree that produced great big cookers, but would only give a heavy crop every other year. In betweeb you would get about 10 apples!!
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on June 16, 2012, 19:16:45
Bramley's are known for biennial bearing. They produce so much one year the tree exhausts itself, so it's too weak to bear the following year.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Martin T on June 16, 2012, 19:19:06
Looks like being a very good year for apples.

Damsons were great last year very poor this year same with my pears.

Martin.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: RenishawPhil on June 16, 2012, 19:32:34
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on June 16, 2012, 19:16:45
Bramley's are known for biennial bearing. They produce so much one year the tree exhausts itself, so it's too weak to bear the following year.

We never found out what apple it was but definately wasn't a bramley
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: small on June 16, 2012, 20:37:07
I have one biennial bearer, the fruit is not like a bramley though, that's having it's year off - the ones I think of as bramleys (because they are like shop ones) have never had a break before. I'm truly gutted about it. There are a few fruit on the russet tree, and on an un-named tree which has a sort of Delicious fruit which doesn't ripen till November, but cookers, zilch. I shall miss the flocks of redwing and fieldfare which descend every year and feast on the fallers, too.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: artichoke on June 18, 2012, 08:59:38
Not one plum on a plum tree that was good last year. Not so many apples on my old Charles Ross as usual. Some gooseberry bushes are heavily covered in fruit, but three others have none at all and are madly growing leaves instead. Blackcurrants and redcurrants and one of those hybrid clambering things (forget its name) are smothered in fruit.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: pigeonseed on June 18, 2012, 09:20:38
Yes no apples at all on three trees, no cherries on one tree, about 5 on another.

Only a few raspberries. But loads of strawberries and blackcurrants - just all green as grass. This time last year we were eating all those summer fruit! 

Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: boydzfish on June 18, 2012, 09:52:53
Some apples coming through but second year with no cherries although the tree looks healthy enough. Mind you the blossom took a bit of a bashing so maybe that's why.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: pigeonseed on June 18, 2012, 19:48:22
Yes it was cold and windy, maybe pollination wasn't good.

And the snails have taken to roosting in my cherry tree, so even though I netted the one tree with cherries on, the snails ate them anyway  ::)

maybe they're trying to keep away from all the snails on the ground!  ;D
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Melbourne12 on June 19, 2012, 07:25:00
I think it depends on whether the varieties were early or late flowering as to the effect of the bad weather.  For us, the plums took the worst hit, and some varieties of gooseberry.  The apples survived pretty well.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Digeroo on June 19, 2012, 07:29:40
I thought I had very few apples on my Discovery.  But the other side away from the house is full.  I prefer the tree to produce few fruits since they are bigger and I do not have to pick off the excess.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Hi_Hoe on June 19, 2012, 08:02:46
Our apple tree was absolutley loaded with blossom earlier this year, but checked yesterday and found only 4 apples growing?

Cherries not doing great either.

Thought we may get our first crop of grapes this year too - vine doing great and we counted about half a dozen bunches forming, but again all strpped bare and down to one bunch!  >:(  bloody slugs....
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Number Six on June 19, 2012, 08:24:39
Apples and plums doing ok so far but no pears. And my 2 year old cherry tree looks like it's dying - lots of brown-ish leaves lower down and withering branches.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Hazelb on June 20, 2012, 09:21:54
I was watching the blossom/eather this year.

Bad weather when the pear tree was flowering...no fruit.

Bad weather when apple tree was flowering, but came good just at the end...has about 1/2 the little apples it normally has.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Aden Roller on June 20, 2012, 09:59:24
What? No bananas?

Certainly we have:


And yes we have no bananas.  ::) 
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Stevens706 on June 20, 2012, 12:22:13
I have no pears from 2 trees, apples are ok, I expect the prices will go up in the shops this year
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: peanuts on June 20, 2012, 20:42:07
We have a few apples on our fairly new Bramley tree, virtually no apples on the other five eating apple trees. Ditto with our two new plum trees.  The old plum tree that gives small yellow but not sweet plums was laden with small plums. It always is, every year. But in our absence last week there were gales, and most of it blew down.  Oh well, it will be good not to have to go out every morning and pick up washing-up bowl-fuls of plums so as not to waste them!
There was plenty of blossom on all trees, just dire wet and cold weather at the same time.  However the raspberries (autumn ones) are just starting to ripen, and they look so full of promise, for months to come - hurray!
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: manicscousers on June 20, 2012, 21:17:13
Lots of discovery apples but hardly any conference or william pears, few cherries or plums but lots of peaches ( covered them with fleece after hand pollinating) , lots of soft fruits and figs
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: galina on June 21, 2012, 08:03:48
Few apples apart from the huge full-size Bramley, but even that has only fewer than normal.  It never stopped raining during apple blossom time - no pollination.

Some plums and some pears.  Best variety is pear 'Dr Jules Guyot' which has developed a flowering habit that is widely spread in time.  We got some very early blossoms, that got frosted and the last few are flowering only now.  A good trait for our peculiar weather.  Don't know whether all DJG do this - does anybody else grow this variety?

Unfortunately the bad winds of recent weeks have battered all trees.  As somebody said, it is like autumn, except the leaves are not brown  :(

Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: KittyKatt on June 21, 2012, 12:40:43
 I've got a mixture this year. Plenty of blossom on pear trees, smallish crop set on Beth, nothing at all on Concorde. IT looks like I'm going to have a good crop on my early plums (Opal and an unknown!) and reasonable crop on Victorias. I think I'm going to have to thin the plums, although I'll wait until the June drop has finished. Apples not too bad, about a dozen fruit on Discovery (young tree, so I'll probably take off quite a few) nothing on Katy (young tree again, so I'm not too worried) nothing on Cox, but it didn't bother to flower this year - I think its taking the year off after bumper crop last year. Cooking apple reasonable crop, but I don't think the June drop has finished yet. OTher apples - Gala, Scrumptious, Bakers delicious all seem to have something, but not nearly as much as last year. Cherry tree has five cherries that have survived this far, even with a net. Greengage has three fruit (young tree again, so I'm not too worried). Gooseberry seems ok, and currants quite well loaded. Raspberries have green fruit and look healthy, although I was eating them this time last year! Good crop of strawberries, not as good as last year, but that was rather overwhelming!

KittyKatt
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: duane dibbley on June 27, 2012, 16:36:52
Our pear trees are nearly empty this year........although we seem to be getting a second round of flowers on 1/3rd of a tree  :o

Plums and Gooseberries are also poor but the blackcurrents and strawberries have a nice heavy crop - just waiting for a bit of sun to ripen them.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: artichoke on June 27, 2012, 21:36:03
Was talking to a friend today - she usually picks masses of plums and sells them on the road in bags, and hawks them around various pubs and small grocers - not one plum this year (like me). But my daughter's Greenwich tree, bought and planted by me, Opal, like me, is almost collapsing with the weight of its fruit!
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Mrs Ava on June 29, 2012, 08:02:36
Hardly any apples on the allotment trees, but last year was a huge apple year so I am assuming the plants are having a rest.  Masses of apples on the golden delicious tree in the garden.  Given up with the cherries.  My tree is laden with cherries but the starlings and blackbirds are eating them before they are even pink.  Masses and masses of soft fruit though so I am happy.
Title: Re: bad year for fruit trees
Post by: Aden Roller on June 29, 2012, 15:56:18
A very confusing year here for fruit trees.  ???

We thought we had three apple trees and a pear. The pear had to go so we could get my dad's pavement scooter into the workshop/shed. It stood right in the way.  :(

That left us three apple trees that last year seemed to have fruited very well. All over the grass they were.

But now one of those apple trees has very odd shaped apples that look as if they might be pears.  ;D We're delighted even if the crop is very small.
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