Am I going to lose all my apples.

[newspud9]

I planted my 2-year old James Grieve M27 apple tree last year.  Good blossom this year and about 20 walnut sized fruits showing.  But half a dozen have fallen off ...so can I expect the rest to follow?  Anything I can do to stop this or is it typical.  I'm watering every other day durig this hot spell...is that too much?  Should I still be pruning to get the growth into the fruit.

Thanks for all the comments.

[newspud9]

[goodlife]

It Is probably quite normal 'July drop'.. something that happens naturally and is tree's own way of reducing the amount of fruit it is able to grow.
This year this 'drop' has been quite noticeable on my plot..the lawn under one of my big trees are littered with small apples.. and good thing it is too...saves me the job of thinning the fruit

[galina]

As Goodlife says!  Lots of dropped apples here too. 

Your tree is still very young.  If it keeps one fruit this year look on it as a bonus.

[newspud9]

many thanks for the replies - i've already lost July's raspberries due to the temperature (they came out and shrivelled up before I could rescue them) and goodness only knows what's going wrong with the currants which have spectacularly under-performed - still, not as bad as last year and am still hanging in.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm not getting more than the usual quantity of dropped fruit. A tree won't ripen more than it can cope with, so be patient.

[pumkinlover]

I'm not getting more than the usual quantity of dropped fruit. A tree won't ripen more than it can cope with, so be patient.

I did not loose any until last week, most unusual. It is a bit alarming but happens every year, and still get a crop!

[Unwashed]

I planted my 2-year old James Grieve M27 apple tree last year.  Good blossom this year and about 20 walnut sized fruits showing.  But half a dozen have fallen off ...so can I expect the rest to follow?  Anything I can do to stop this or is it typical.  I'm watering every other day durig this hot spell...is that too much?  Should I still be pruning to get the growth into the fruit.

Thanks for all the comments.

If you bought it as an established restricted form like a cordon or espalier then yes, you want to be summer pruning, but if you're training an espalier framework from scratch then I think you need to be winter pruning until you have established the form.

If you only planted the tree last winter then I think you'd do well to take all the fruit off and let the tree build up some strength in its first year - and it's quite a stressful year with these temperatures and no moisture in the topsoil.  Watering sounds like a good idea, though I'd give it a really good soak every fortnight rather than a dribble every other day.

[Digeroo]

How odd.  My James Grieve has a nasty habit of not dropping enough apples.   So I do spend ages picking off the doubles/triples leaving just singes.  Otherwise I find they end up rather small.  20 apples sounds a lot to me for such a young tree.  I think it is better to have fewer bigger apples.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you only planted the tree last winter then I think you'd do well to take all the fruit off and let the tree build up some strength in its first year - and it's quite a stressful year with these temperatures and no moisture in the topsoil.  Watering sounds like a good idea, though I'd give it a really good soak every fortnight rather than a dribble every other day.

Depends how well it's growing. If it's growing strongly, let it keep a couple of apples. If not, take them off. I had some from Homebase which never grew until I started stripping the fruit, then gained strength rapidly without them.