Why no blossoms on a fruit tree?

[Paschale]

I'm curious.  I've lived in my house now through about four Springs.  Last year was the first, and only year of those four where my crabapple tree blossomed.  It was really fantastic, in fact.  I had considered cutting it down, because it hadn't bloomed.  Last year was excellent, and I even made some crabapple jelly with the fruit.  But this year, once again, no blossoms. 

I'm wondering if it has to do with stress on the tree.  Perhaps stress actually induces the blossoming, or perhaps stress prevents the blossoming.  It's an old, craggy tree, with a lot of dead twigs here and there.  I did some serious pruning on it one year, and I'm wondering if it was the year before I had the blossoms. 

Ihave all kinds of sprouts popping out all over that tree--it definitely needs a haircut.  Here's the question:  can when I prune, or the amount of pruning effect how well the tree blossoms next year?  Is there any way to encourage it, or am I at the mercy of the whim of the tree?

Thanks!

[beenthere]

Late in the winter, before the frost goes out, take the chainsaw out there at least once a week. Start it up, rev it a few times and then leave. Don't break out into a grin while doing this. Look serious.

That should work to get you blossoms.

[jackpine]

My crabapple trees did not bloom last year, first time in the 6 years we lived here. The year before they bloomed but a killing frost got them and they did not produce any crabapples. I wonder if that frost and lack of fruit had anything to do with them not blooming the following year?

This year they are in full bloom again 8)

Bill

[Fla._Deadheader]

Most fruit grows on new growth. Pruning is pretty essential.

[Paul_H]

With Apples and Pears the buds apear on Two and Three year old wood(twigs).It's best to prune all those vertical growing suckers off in the early Spring although you could probably still get away with it now.

Link

This link looked pretty good but there are probably lots of other good ones out there.

[Pullinchips]

Prune fruit trees in the fall after leaves fall.  Like Deadheader said remove all suckers and linbs that cross each other, to allow "air" to circulate to the interior of the tree.  This is how the experts put it i have no idea about the air flow thing.  I beleive that the growth has to be at leat two years old to bear fruit/blossoms.  Yes strees affets fruiting.  A tree may have a bumber crop of blossums/fruit before it dies to ensure a replacement, and also they do have bumper years throughout their life that has to do with many things.  A tree that is young vigorous and fast growing will most likely have more bloom than an old wore out tree.  No stress is always best, apple and peach producers top their trees to encourage new growth and to keep fruit reachable.  My friend who is a certified arborist says (i think i am rememboring correctly) to prune no more than a third of the foliage.  This may just apply to trees other than fruit tress i am not sure, maybe someone more knowlegable on fruit trees can speak up.  But if it were my tree i would prune in late fall/winter after leaf off and stick to the 1/3 rule taking all suckers off first and then multiples of branches that are close, then fertilize in the fall of the pruning year with 10-10-10 fertilizer at the rate of 2lbs per inch of stem diameter, applied evenly under the crown or drip line not in a pile next to the trunk like some people thought i ment when i said to fertilize.

This will most likely improve the fruit the next spring.  But if a killing frost bites the flowers you can kiss all or a majority of the fruit goodbye.

I have done this to pear trees that are probably 60+ yrs old with good success.  The first spring after i pruned the oldes narliest one i thought i ruined it and was going to kill it because of the amount and weight of the fruit on each remaining limb.  If you fear this pick some young fruit off to lighten the limbs load because a long thin young limb can break iff to much fruit forms on it.

Repeat the fetilizer each fall and a lighter dose in the spring if you desire and prune when neccisary.

Also if you feel that there is too much that need to be removed air on the side of caution and remove a third this year and up  to a third the next so the tree can recover.

Hope you follow this and is not to long that people bore halfway through it.


-Nate

[Paul_H]

I had been told that Fall pruning was best too but the man that pruned our trees when we first moved here told me that they found an early Spring prune worked well because there tended to be a fair amount of die back in a harsh Winter.He(Klaus) pruned for both Fruit production and asthetics,keeping the tree open in the center.

The leaves on most of our Apple trees seem to stay well into early December but the last of our Apples are gone by mid November.



My son Tom did all the pruning this year and I'm happy with the amount of blossoms through out the trees.






The last pic shows a bit of the Flowering Crab and the Pear trees in the back ground.The blossoms are out in full and it smells sweet around here right now

[Frickman]

I have always been told that the air circulation you get after pruning some interior branches helps prevent mold and disease on the fruit.

[crtreedude]

One thing to watch out for is that often a fruit tree can get into a bi-annual habit. No blooms (or very few) one year, buried the next. If you have the problem, remove about half the blooms on a big year.

This is because too much energy goes into producing the fruit. Often they get into this because of a late frost killing all the blooms one year. All the energy goes into to producing more blooms for next year, and too many are produced.

By pruning - and removing some of blooms early on - you can get it back into a yearly cycle.

[Corley5]

We've got a pair of transparent apple trees that are on a bi annual schedule.  For years one tree had apples and the other didn't and the next year they switched.  One year we had a severe tent worm infestation and now both trees have apples the same year and none the next :

[Pullinchips]

Winter die back is not an issue here in south carolina but i can see that it could be a problem in canada and an early spring late winter prune before leafout may work better as stated by Paul H.

[solodan]

I always worry that my fruit trees won't fruit , cause we usually get several feet of snow after the trees begin to blossom, but we have never had a problem with the trees not producing. The year after a hard prune we tend to get the most fruit, but cuting most of the branches off also gets me worried. We have lots of naturalized apple and pear trees, around here, and some get no fruit, while others that grow in or around the old abbandoned orchards produce well. These old wild trees tough, produce fruit mostly on their upper most newer branches.

[nyforester]

Are you giving it a lot of fertilizer ? Too much fertilizer will make it grow shoots all over the place and limit the blossom.