No apples on tree

littlerock

for the first time that I can remember, normally prolific apple tree has not produced any apples this year. The tree looks healthy enough. It is Ballerina, a very late fruiting variety. I am in town. Could it be the heat - it was over 90f for weeks with no rain, or lack of bees, or no suitable pollinating neighbouring trees because someone has cut theirsdown? Any suggestions?

sevenhills

Ballerina Flamenco is self-sterile and needs to be pollinated by another tree of a different variety nearby. Since it flowers in the middle of the blossom season it can be pollinated by most other apple trees.


Do you have other apple trees nearby?

zeupater

Hi

We've had no pears, plums or cherries on our main trees & a usually laden apple tree only has a few fruit roughly the size of large cherries so it's not even worth picking them ... it's probably the worst season for fruit we've ever had, but at least the new trees we've planted over the past few years seem to have survived ... it's just been one of those years!

HTH
Z

DREKLY

..... I have been out scrumping.......

littlerock

My neighbour's apple tree next door (early fruiting) has has no fruit either, and has in past years. Maybe it had a sterile year. Alternatively my next door neighbour on the other side had several fruit trees which he has cut down this year so that may be the reason. Which tree variety should I plant to be sure to get my Ballerina apples pollinated next year?.

silverwhistle

Bees range quite widely and there certainly should be apple trees quite close to you in an urban/suburban situation.



Perhaps making sure you have a few bee popular plants (if you don't already) to make sure they have the habit of visiting your garden and so are there at the right time for your particular tree.


I had a good set this year, although lost a lot to the moth and later wasps. I must remember to band the trees this winter!

Apodemus

To be fair to the tree, it’s been a pretty unusual year... warm enough in the depths of winter for sap to start rising and buds form, than the “beast from the east” to potentially damage the emerging blossom buds, then the heat and drought of summer to shrivel up any fruit that might have been forming. Some trees will have been in positions where they escaped all that, others will not have been so fortunate. And as mentioned above, even if your tree blossomed normally, the one(s) that normally are the pollen source (or the insects that normally do the pollination) may have been more badly affected.

Let’s hope for a more normal year next year!