There has been no `June Drop` among my apple trees this year, and a quick check among friends and acquaintances over a radius of several miles seems to indicate that they are experiencing the same problem. Consequently the trees are bearing 2 or 3 times as many apples as usual, but all of considerably smaller size. The smallest ones, which should have fallen weeks ago, are still firmly attached and refuse to budge despite considerable shaking of the branches (or such of them as can be reached). It appears that instead of peeling just 2 Bramleys for a pie I shall have to peel 4 or 5.
Has anyone else noticed this, or is it for some reason just a local problem in my area?
We experienced the "June drop" in May this year (Northampton), and our apple tree has less apples now than it did last year, which was it's first year. They are going to be as big as last years though by the looks of things. It's a "Greensleeves" dessert apple, and is currently growing in a large container, as we haven't decided/found a place for it yet.
Hi Kepouros,
My 6 year old apple tree (James Greive) has dropped surplus fruit but not in huge quantities.
Before that it was in danger of snapping off its branches under the weight of fruit, I had to build a cage around it to support it.
My younger trees, Golden Delicious and Novi Sad, carry less fruit and haven`t
dropped at all. My pear trees also haven`t dropped fruit at all.
All the fruit looks in good condition, We have had daily rain in Norwich and some sun but not flooding. Everything seems to be cropping, maturing and then going over very early and quickly this year.
Col
In one of the gardens I work in, the 'June Drop' is happening now :-\
I've been picking up little apples for the last couple of weeks since the temperature improved. The ones still on the tree are looking small and green (Discovery should be red and yellow) but there's still time for them to fill out and ripen. Last year we picked late August to September.
Apples not so good this year . Hardly any were "dropping" ,so I thinned them out myself.....many are splitting...I think due to the crazy weather .....BUT ...my pear tree is almost ridiculously heavily laden with fruit ! I will thin these out too .
These pears are the rock hard type , that never seem to soften until I boil them up . Any recipes would be most welcome ! Tips on freezing them ?
The june drop happened for me in may when gales stripped all but one pear off my tree,if this one grows it`s going on display in the fruit bowl.
i had little or no drop this year. Last year it was massive as the trees were suffering from the drought.
Same here - virtually no drop from apples or pears.
Cheers,
Rob ;)
No drop to speak of her either...
???
No june drop here in Leicester, on lots of apple and pear varieties.
Victoria plum still green, but absolutely loaded.
Greengage on my old plot has fruits from base to tip on every branch, having to support them as they bend(from what should be pointing almost straight up!)
What a change from last summers drought....
Plenty of drop here in Essex both on the trees in the garden and those on the allotment. It is going to be a bumper year though, even with considerable droppage (is that a real word?) the trees are weighed down with fruits!
June drop as per normal in Glasgow. Generally, all fruit is two weeks earlier than normal with huge crops.
Young tree, lots of fruit (see below) not much of a drop , so reduced the crop manually - a few more have dropped off since.
No real drop for me, but all 3 of my apple trees have much more fruit than last year (3rd year Aldi varieties). Could just be due to their age/growth, but they're bigger as well as more numerous. ;D
We had an early drop down by Pompey, and are getting a July klunk in the wind and rain now. Fruits were already much thinned by early June, with none on some trees (which was more to do with a sneaky frost killing off the blossom I think).
our tree dropped everyone of its apples this year any particular reason?
Debster
It's usually stress that causes trees to lose it's seeds (which is what apples are at the end of the day). Down here we had sycamores dropping undeveloped helicopters in APRIL this year due to the drought ::) they were experiencing at the time.
ok could have been that i was out of action for quite a while in april so it could have been that it happened then