apple blossoms

Discussion in 'Fruit and Nut Trees' started by lily, Apr 25, 2008.

  1. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    I have a very old apple tree in my backyard. I moved here in December and pruned the tree (it was 20ft tall) It looks great with lots and lots of leaves. I've never had an apple tree before and I would like to know when it will show some blossoms? After pruning it, will it get apples this year? What should I be feeding it and how often? Do I need to spray it with anything? Thank you.
     
  2. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    My apple tree used to put out its blooms near the beginning of May (I lived in Northern Alberta) after the leaves were fully set. It was about 60 years old, and whenever I remembered to call the arborist and have it pruned (about every three years) it would bloom profusely - so much so that I found myself pinching blossoms to ensure a goodly sized fruit. The tree was about the same size as yours, and it gave me close to 300 lbs of apples in a good year.

    I wouldn't spray it unless it gets infested with bugs. The only thing I'd do is wrap a tanglefoot strip around the main trunk to discourage ants.

    Do you know what type of apple the tree is? Did it fruit for the previous owners? Can you post us a picture? If we can see the tree, we might be able to tell you if it will fruit this year - closeups of the stems and leaves are particularly helpful, to me at least.
     
  3. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Hi Lorax,
    I have no idea what kind of apple tree it is. I was told by my neigbour that he has seen it with lots of apples on it. Thanks for the tip about the 'tanglefoot strip' . I will go and find some. I added mulch around the base of the tree, right after it was pruned. I'll take a pic later today and post it. Thanks Lorax
     
  4. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Fruits are borne from buds formed previous year, new shoots made this year will not bear this year. Any parts of tree cut away during winter represent potential lost fruit, if you pruned branches back far enough to be stumps these will not fruit until those parts of the tree re-grow new branches and set flower buds.

    Some cultivars are called tip-bearing, if you go through every year and prune back all the tips of these it may cut into your yield. Mature, developed specimens of all types are probably best managed by occasionally cutting out entire old, underproductive or mis-placed branches and mostly leaving the rest alone - unless a particular tree has been intensively pruned and trained from the start into a particular shape, and this has been kept up to the present time.

    Radically reducing (topping) a natural-form, mature specimen can be highly destructive to it, same as with an ornamental tree. There are many very sad old apple trees in my region that were allowed to grow large and then effectively cut in half, resulting in severe decay of the trunks and reduced vigor.
     
  5. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    Thanks Ron, It had some very tall suckers, which I took off. This tree hadn't been pruned in many years. It was totally neglected by previous owners. I removed several crossing branches and dead branches. When do apple trees usually blossom? I'll be happy if I can get blossoms. Maybe next year I'll have some fruit. As always Ron, I appreciate your expertise.
     
  6. lily

    lily Active Member 10 Years

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    I took some photos. This is what my apple tree looks like today. What should I be doing to help it along? Do you think it will get any blossoms this year? Thanks again for all your help.
     

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  7. growest

    growest Active Member 10 Years

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    Lily--I looked pretty carefully and I do think I see some flower buds on there, maybe not a lot, but they should open in the next few weeks. Your tree is ahead of mine, where pears are just flowering which always precedes the apples by a week or 2.

    A fellow in Aldergrove has posted a pretty simple explanation of the summer pruning that might be best for your tree in the future...helping to keep it at the size you want while encouraging more good fruit.

    http://derrysorchardandnursery.ca/p5_pruning.html
     
  8. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Specimen looks familiar, you must have asked about it before. A grafted, named selection coming from a nursery would never have two trunks originating together at ground level. If this is a purchased tree rather than one you or another grew themselves - say from seed - then surely one of the trunks belongs to a rootstock that the named variety was planted onto. If so this part probably won't turn out to produce good fruit and should be cut out. The other half will be likely to need a suitable second variety present for cross-pollination, if one doesn't happen to be growing in the vicinity you will have to identify and plant one. If your tree is not a known, named variety then an ornamental crabapple flowering at the same time will probably be adequate.

    In addition, apple trees are highly variable from seed so if yours is one grown from seed and it has not fruited yet you may find these aren't something you like too much. In that case it would be best to remove the tree and use the space for something that does pay the rent.

    The manner in which you have topped it all the way across at the same height will now result in a hedge-like growth of numerous vertical shoots that will have to be dealt with. You can only go so far with height control on any tree, fruiting or otherwise. If you intend to keep topping it at the same level then you will be growing watersprouts (in that part of the tree) instead of fruit, year after year. That's one of the problems with topping, unless too old or non-vigorous for another reason the tree immediately and assertively sprouts replacement tops.
     
  9. Gardenlover

    Gardenlover Active Member

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    Location:
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    that is a nice tree. My advice would be to monitor your fertilizer application to your lawn that surrounds the trees perimeter. Don't apply excessive nitrogen on your lawn because your apple tree will feed off the same area...causing lush growth and you don't want fire blight on your tree, also you want your tree to slow down for dormancy late fall with no new growth.

    good luck!
     

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