I have two mature apple trees in my field, a red delicious and a yellow delicious. The previous owner did nothing to them for years. Three winters years ago I pruned them heavily, in accordance with the local extension agent's instructions. "Heavily" means I took out all the suckers and cross branches and opened up the top to let in air and light. I also put about 2 or 3 tbsp of 20 Mule Team Borax under each tree and fertilized them. I have been spraying them with home orchard spray regularly since then. The yellow delicious has bloomed and produced fruit every year. But for the last two years the red delicious has had very few blooms (maybe five clusters) and only a few apples. The yellow delicious right next to it has been treated exactly the same and seems normal. Last year I blamed it on the very wet and cool spring: it didn't get warm and dry until late June. But this year has been a normal year, and there are still only a few blooms. The tree seems vigorous, with lots of new leaves and shoots. Does anyone have any idea what I might have done to cause this? Is it the heavy pruning? If so why is only the one tree affected, and how long should it take to recover?
Can you give me an idea where the Delicious (Red) Apple is in relation to the Golden Delicious? Is the Delicious North, South, East or West of the Golden Delicious, how far apart are they and which tree is more apt to be facing right into the predominant wind? Sometimes the Golden Delicious (late season) is not the best pollinizer for the Delicious (midseason) but the Delicious generally is a good pollinizer for the Golden Delicious. What kind of fertilizer have you used and how much of it have you applied each late Winter or Spring? Also, how many spurs does the Delicious seem to have on the tree? Since this tree is more apt to produce a heavy crop every other year it may take another year or two for enough of the spurs to come back and bear fruit for you. Jim
Thanks for the reply. These trees are about 20 ft tall and in diameter, about 25 ft apart, right next to each other, with branches intertwined on the sides closest to each other. They are in an east-west line. In the spring the wind around here comes from all directions so neither is really facing the wind. The problem does not seem to be pollinization, because the Red has only a few blooms to pollinate. The Yellow has normal bloom and crop. I usually spread a cup or so of time-release 8-10-6 fertilizer around them each in the spring. I apply the same amount to these trees as the rest of the trees in my orchard, and the others seem normal. I'm not sure what spurs are but there doesn't seem to be any difference between the branches that had flowers and the ones that didn't. One difference that is now apparent is that the Red has much denser leaf coverage than the Yellow this year. It seems to me that perhaps this is the normal year off for the tree, since it seems healthy and vigorous except for not having much bloom. Again, thanks for the reply!
