Looks like a terrible 2018 apple crop

Really disappointing year so far for our fruit trees

The Victoria plums that we picked early on had the plum worm in them so ended up chucking them away as we dare not compost them.We only had around four Williams on the tree that soon dropped off. The Conferance pears are being pecked at by the birds and then the wasps attack the bit the birds have pecked so they are either rotting on the trees or falling off so I’m having to collect them up each time we are on the plots.

Same with our apples,they are rotting on the trees as the birds and wasps have also attacked them and any apples that get blown off in the strong wide and drop to the ground then the bunnies or rats are eating them

Mr Kandy picked the last of the Victoria’s Friday morning and it doesn’t look like we are going to get many from off of the Marjorie’s Seedling either

I have brought home a few of the cooking apple fallers to stew up but I don’t like them when they taste tart and I don’t want to have to add a lot of sweetener to them.It doesn’t help either that Mr Kandy dislikes apples or pears that have fallen to the ground,another one of his quirks

The hedgerows are full of ripening blackberries and sloes but the elderberry clumps are definetley sparse this year due to either the drought or the birds eating them early.At this rate there will be nothing left for when the Fieldfares/Redwings get here in a few weeks time

 

Snap @Scudo , we seem to have have cornered the apple market up here in Scotland this year. My trees are laden with a massive crop, I think it is because our blossom will have been later than down in the south of England and therefore not affected by the beast from the east. I know many of my plants were incredibly late to flower which was a benefit in some ways as they flowered post any late frosts which has in the past put paid to my fruit tree blossom amongst other things. I am surprised tho as I didn't, unlike you, water my fruit trees but then they are ancient and will have extensive root systems unlike your youngster.

 

My neighbours apple trees have got so many good sized apples on them the branches are drooping down and touching the lawn. I can honestly say ive never seen so many apples on individual trees. There must be hundreds and hundreds of them and as he isnt a gardener 99.9% of them will go to waste.

 

They started picking in the orchard about 3 weeks ago.
Discovery and Bramley, now onto something called Windsor and the pears will start next week.
The manager says it will be a bumper crop.
He aint keen.

 

Only enough apples on my In-laws tree to press 6 bottles of juice, out of 2 of our trees that can produce up to 400lbs each, one has zero apples and the other only a few dozen.

But when I visit other parts of the country, I see trees laden with fruit, but around here they're bare

 

One of the bramleys they have picked.

Apparently they thin certain trees early to get suitable sized fruit early.
Personally, is it ripe, no, but if your going to cook it most people wont know the difference.

They never seem to pick any fruit when its ripe, which is why supermarket fruit is not that great.
Its all very scientific and the fruit needs to be up to a certain sugar level, but still be hard enough to not bruise when put into those big old one ton apple boxes.
Then straight into a cold store, before going to packing.
Until I saw it I never realised what went on, very different to growing a few trees in your garden.

 

Not quite on the same subject but related. I went to school in Somerset and saw with my own eyes the process of producing Scrumpy. OMG nothing like the pretty picture of apples being picked off the trees. Most of the apples used were picked off the ground and well past their best /rotten.The pressing took place is filthy barns where I'm pretty sure I spotted rats and what was produced was cloudy and quite sort of thick. The up side was it was lethal and after a pint you really didn't care anymore how it had been produced. I may add the hangovers were historic and many a time I said never again will this stuff pass my lips....until the next time

 

The cold stores have carefully controlled atmospheres as well, low levels of oxygen to slow down ageing of fruit. Composition of the atmosphere and the storage temperature differ from crop to crop.
Speaking of my apple crop very poor, Bramleys might be alright and Spartan may be pickable others either no fruit set or very small fruit and a lot of Brown rot. What's a plum anyway.
Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned replacing them in their hearing.

 

Whenever I see suitable apples on my travels, I create pins in Google maps to re-locate them, and make online diary notes to remind me when they're ready to pick. I start taking apple pickers and bags with me on hols starting around this time of year.

I hope to snaffle these shortly when they ripen unless @Zigs picks them first (plus I'll catch all the Mackerel along Chesil Beach).

 

I know that tree

Have a look at the eroded bank back towards the sea, you can see the Roman road about 4 foot under the present one

 

Some folks Bramleys may not be ripe, but ours are. We picked about 80 pounds of them today and they just fell off the tree as they should when ready.
Worrying thing is that some of the supposedly later ripening ones are ready too. Tried a Queen Cox just and it came away from the tree no problem, the seeds are brown and the taste....mmm. But it should not be ripe until the middle of September at the earliest. So if ripe now will they keep as they should?