Apple tree - no blosom :

Hi Guys,

Can anyone tell me why my bramley apple tree has barely produced any blossom (only two or three flowers from what I could see)I suspect it is because we have pruned it incorrectly. I think I did it mid feb to march (before any new shoots appeared) cutting off most new growth as it had gone a bit crazy last year! The tree looks healthy just no blosom) Will it produce no fruit this year? It has the added problem that I have also removed the tree next to it (they used to polinate each other).

 

For reliable cropping Bramleys usually need two other apples nearby, but I think that the lack of blossom is probably due to the pruning. Bramleys are tip bearers,ie they tend to produce blossom at the tip of shoots, which were pruned off!
Usually there are enough apples in gardens nearby for pollination, have a look and see before buying a new apple. And roll on next year for apples!

 

I did not know Bramleys were tip bearers and the ones I have seen did not look like that. However its is a very vigorous cultivar. if you hack it about then you will just encourage more vegetative growth at the expense of flower buds. It is is a triploid variety so it needs two other varieties to pollinate the flowers.

 

This is a picture of my Blush Bramley which was in full bloom in early April.




as you can see it blooms all over

 

Beautiful! Hubby and I saw it when we were over there in April.

I might add that it blooms like this every year and my cousin has so much fruit that she puts it out front with a sign for people to help themselves. This after she has frozen so much and supplied the family and friends too.

 

Beautiful, davris ... I can just taste those wonderful apple pies now!

 

We pruned our apple tree last year and haven't had much blossom this year, we'll leave it alone this time and cross our fingers :D The lady in the garden centre said that bees can fly 3 miles when collecting nectar from fruit trees, seems a long way to me for those titchy wings

 

Thanks for your replies.

Geoff & Liz, what should I do in future. I would like to keep the growth in check though obviously would also like apples. Can I not prune the tree?

Cheers EGW

 

I have mislaid my book "The Fruit Garden Displayed" We are looking for it now and will read up to remind me. have just taken a book called "Apple Growing" by an american back to the library. That had the most detailed description of pruning i have ever come across.

 

Hi, you don't say how old your tree is. If it isn't very big then the problem isn't so bad. If it is a fully grown tree then you might need a tree surgeon to remove branches. The idea here is to open out the centre of the tree to encourage it into a bowl shape.
Also it depends whether the tree is growing on it's own root stock.
If the tree is fairly small then prune it in late winter as you did, but prune only a proportion of the branches which fruited the year before [in your case this will be none!] to make allowance for the tip bearing. This way there will always be some fruit bearing wood.
Perhaps you could buy, or look in your library for, a book on pruning which will help.
Good Luck!

 

Liz & Geoff,

Thank you very much for your replies - oh how I do wish I had looked into this before just taking the lopper to it! I don't know how old the tree is exactly. at least twenty years I'd have thought by the looks of it, it's a reasonable size, probably about 12ft high by 10 across. I don't really know what you mean by growing on it's own root stock - assume so. It is quite open in the middle. it's such a shame as it bore so much fruit before we did not know what to do with it all. I hope I haven't ruined it forever - might the fruit come back next year?

 

I'm sure you will get fruit next year! It should fruit on the growth it makes this year as long as it has pollinators. Crab apples will do as pollinators.

 

Thanks Liz - phew I feel better now , I think I may buy a crab apple as I don't think any of my neighbours have trees and I have got rid of my other apple tree which used to pollenate this one

 

Growing on its own root stock....Nearly all apples are grown grafted on to special root stocks. You will probably be able to see a bulge low down where the graft is. The root stock restricts growth and makes the tree smaller than it would otherwise be. It also brings the trees into fruit much earlier. If apples were taken as cuttings and therefore growing on roots produced by the actual variety they would grow into huge trees and would take many years to start fruiting. Bramley is a strong growing variety and is vigorous even on dwarfing root stocks. On its own roots it would be enormous.
An alternative to crab apples is to get two dessert apples in the same pollination group as Bramley. To save space you could even buy cordons that take up very little space.
My apologies - Bramley is what they call a partial tip bearer.
Have a look at this web site for info on root stocks and varieties. they produce good quality trees.
http://www.deaconsnurseryfruits.co.uk/home/
The site also has a table to pollination groups so you can work out which will flower at the same time as your Bramley eg. you could use Discovery or laxton's Fortune.

 

Thanks Geoff! Looks like I'll have to do some homework!