I wonder if anyone else on the forum has the same problem as us gardeners down south this year.
Despite there being blossoms in the spring there is no fruit on any of my trees this year - apple and plum - I only have a couple of sickly looking cherries but after speaking to my lottie neighbours he says that he also does not have any fruit this year. I can't believe that last year this time we were thinning the poor apple tree out as it was groaning under all the fruit.
Jitterbug
Funny you should say that but one of my apples which fruited prolifically last year never flowered and has not one fruit on it yet the other tree next to it, which didn't fruit last year has plenty this.
same here plenty of flowers but no fruit
Cherry had 2 flowers, set 2 fruit which went yellow and dropped off.
Apple is fine.
yep..we've bits and pieces, the only one any good is the big apple at home (we think it's tapped into the main drain, shhhhh)
My apples are fine but my pear has no fruit at all, even though it blossomed prolifically. Think it was probably a frost around blossom time that did it.
Cheers,
Rob ;)
I am in Kent (Greenhithe) and have a Victoria Plum tree in my garden which is laden with fruits which are growing ok.
twinkletoes
Our trees are all very young, so we don't have great expectations of them, but the rather strong winds and cold wet weather certainly destroyed a lot of the blossom. Neither of our plum trees has any significant set of fruit, and of the three apples, only one, a Fiesta, has set well.
blossom that fails is either due to the fact that it isn't viable, i.e. the tree is too young and it just falls off or it could have been that cold spell after the rather warm early spell we had and this has spoilt the blossom - it is just nature's way
my damson and 2 pears that have for the past few years been prolific (in fact prolific is too less a word for the fruit we have had) decided not to even blossom this year - reason? - I think they decided they needed a rest :)
apples are looking to be excellent though this year
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. :-[
Hate to say but here in the Midlands my plum tree is showing the strain already, the wild cherry trees look well stockes and my apple tree is over endowed.
Must be a regional thing.
Darren
hiya, paul Long, welcome to the site, I 've noticed a lack of ladybirds and lacewings, I've ordered 50 ladybird larvae to help in the poly
uckily there are lots of hoverflies around ;D
In the North West
Plums & greengages, just a few, they blossomed first so I think it may have been too cold for the insects.
Apples, cooking and eating loaded
Pears more than enough
Cherries plenty of fruit
Gooseberries look a bit mediocre.
The black berry bushes both cultivated and wild are full of blossoms.
Currants and Rhubarb are fine too
Strawberries are very plentiful.
There has been a shortage of bees in some areas, this might add to the problem. Don't think I would fancy trying to do a tree with a cotton bud as an alternative though.
I was hoping to have some fruit this year as I planted 2 apples, a pear and 2 plum in spring 2007. Everything flowered but only the bramley that flowered later has got any fruit. Am quite disappointed but there's always next year!
Two pear trees, one plum, one apricot and two nectarines and not a single fruit even though there was blossom on each tree. Even the morello cherry which usually has masses of fruit has very few, very small cherries gradually ripening. Funnily enough two of Gordon's four apple trees are loaded this year and he is only 5 miles from here. So at least we should be making some crumbles come September :).
Tricia
Apples, pears, quinces, cherries all ok and carrying fruit - damson, greengage & other trees look dismally light on fruit this year.
Lots of flowers and lots of developing fruit on mine. On the other hand, the rhubarb is looking a bit on the weak side, and the Dracunculus is pathetic. There's no doubt they were affected by all the waterlogging last year.
Sweet cherry has got a few fruit on still, but plums, damsons and morello cherry have nothing :'( - will have to check the the hedgerows this year
Apples, red/whitecurrants, goosegogs rasps are fine ;D
One apple tree has fruit, the other has nothing.
The quince has less than last year, but it was quite heavily pruned this year.
The cherry is good, but nothing on the plum at all.
Gooseberry, red/blackcurrants, rasps all fine.
The sloe looks as if there will be less fruit this year - ahhh - less sloe gin!!!!
Quote from: Paul Long on June 09, 2008, 12:06:18
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.
There is a apple tree on the plot I have taken over.
And yes there is fruit on it
Apples look good,cherry tree is good(but it`s well sheltered)
Pears and plums-I reckon it was that cold snap when I was away around the third week in May-no fruit at all-like wise my neighbour`s apricot
my plum tree appears to have died - it started growing in early spring and then the growth started to turn brown and went crispy. The crab apple flowered very spectacularly, but no fruit so far. Perhaps the late frosts got to them both.
I purchased a brambly apple tree earlier this year for 4.99 from a well known pound shop, I soaked the roots for 24hrs, planted it in an ideal position. Nothing happened, it looked dead, now months later there is a sign of growth, next year I hope it will be good. My cherry, pear, plum, greengage, plum, nectarine and apricot trees are doing fine as is my established apple trees. Also my Goji berries (grown from seed) are doing well.
Squash Man
In Milton keynes there are lots of fruits on the trees. Our cherry tree has prolific amounts and the apple tree on the allotment is doing well too. No fruit on the pear tree though...
Wonder why the south is having problems this year?
The only one of mine which isn't doing so well is the Cambridge Gage, which was flowering during the cold weather. There is a crop, doubtless because it warmed up at the end of the flowering period, but it's going to be pretty light. I had one year when the plums didn't fruit at all due to cold leading to a lack of pollinators.
I picked masses of young apples of the Bramley. I let it fruit too early, with the result that it stopped growing. i picked all the fruit off last year, and it's far stronger already, and growing happily. Next year I'll let it fruit.
Up at the allotment, one out of two pears with a small amount of fruit - none on the other, but we did prune it for shape this year. Apples one heavy with fruit the other none at all! Two Damsons no fruit. Apricot flowered well but no sign of fruit. at home patio peach and nectarine both blasted by leaf curl; patio cherry no sign of fruit and potted Black Mulberry no sign of fruit.
On the plus side but the raspberry canes are groaning with berries - the birds are just waiting for them to ripen :).
I would have to agree with Cleo. My fruit tree's have always produced a good crop of plums, pears and apples but this year the pears and plums have really suffered. I thought it must have been the really hot weather we had followed by a sharp frost. (I'm south east by the way!)
I haven't seen a lot of bees this year and we're next door to the hives.
Hi
Just found this forum while I was desperately looking for an answer to why my wonderful pear and plum trees are fruitless this year. I'm in Northants and in the 2 years we've been in our house, both trees have had more fruit than we could pick - this year nothing, nada! The pear didn't have very much blossom and has no fruit, the plum did flower, but only one or two branches have anything resembling fruit and much of that is tiny and yellow.
Must have a look at the next door neighbour's apple - it had masses of blossom, best I've seen, so I'll have to see if the promised fruit made it as well!
My only consolation is the large store of plum wine we have after last year's crop!
Thanks for your help.
hi, sunnyb, welcome to the site, our pears are few and far between this year, too ;D
What was the weather like when they were in flower? It doesn't take frost to stop them cropping, just cold and miserable weather with no insects flying.
I put my lack of pears down to that Robert. Nothing much in the hedgerows either. No sign of sloes or the fabulous plums I picked on my dog walks the year before last.(none to speak of last year either). On the plot, my neighbours new Aldi apple trees are looking very fruitful.
If I remember correctly, we had that really cold, windy weather around the time the tree blossomed. I'm hoping its just that, and the lack of pollinating insects anyway and not a health problem with the trees - the pear certainly looks healthy enough as does the plum - maybe a year off will do them both good - shame though because I was getting used to having my own supply of fruit for a couple of weeks.
No fruit in Northants? Down in Bucks there are loads and we suffered with the frost badly as well - lost courgettes etc. It is a bit of a mystery. There are oodles of wildflowers and roses in MK and i have seen lots of bees and hoverflies. I only moved here last year, but it seems the council plants lots and lots of bulbs and flowers, and deliberately leaves parts of the verges uncut to allow flowering.
I have two plum trees at my allotment in north london and neither has any fruit. I have noticed on the victoria plum tree that there is a little leaf curl. Has anyone any idea why this is happening. Thanks
our apple tree is in in an awfull state this year,realy good last year but have noticed that in the area ther are allot of apple tree's the same so going to give it a good trim and hope that the tree will survive, all the apples have dropped off one by one, when small, Im in the South.
One apple tree has loads. The other has none :(
It seems that there is something realy amiss here peeps ???
Several nights of frosts when they were either in blossom or had not long set means no plums/greengage/damsons this year, and the local hedgerows are bare too
However, apples are doing fine we'll be picking Summered in a couple of weeks, and Kidds Orange/Red Falstaff/Pitmaston Pineapple all loaded
Yer wins some, yer lose some :P
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.
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.
Biennial bearing is a known problem, but the decline in Bee populations may be having an impact too. ???
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: hopalong on June 17, 2008, 15:14:37
Quote from: Paul Long on June 09, 2008, 12:06:18
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..
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
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.
I live in Devon and i have got huge great pears and coxs apples, maybe about 30% down but not bad. 8) 8)