Hi folks! I have about 30 apple trees I grafted last year that were moved into the nursery last summer and all seemed to do pretty well. A few of them really took off growing almost 4 feet. I went into the nursery this weekend to check on them and noticed that about 3 or 4 of the ones that did really well last year arent budding this year at all. The trees look great - graft union looks good - but none of the buds on the new growth are breaking at all.
I’ll give them a couple more weeks but Im curious if this is common. I sorted of assumed that if they did that well last year that they’d be doing awesome again this year. I included a couple of pictures below.
Here in Snohomish Washington, western washington, several options for cause of not budding: Ambrosia beatle one bite and the bacterium kills the (young) tree; Crown rot, curiously prevalent on my bud 118 rootstock when I sprinkle chicken manure pellets on all my tree pots-do my best to keep the solids off the trunk so yes they occasionally get girdled and hard to see without a ‘fingernail test’-scrape the bark checking for green or brown and finally, here Anthracnose, another hard to see/detect on the trunk, discolored and girdling partial or complete.
Northwoods had a bunch of rootrot medlar in '24 and that was unseen above ground and clearly seen with a thumbnail. I always knock the plant out of it’s pot. Root condition is primary when you don’t see miscoloration above ground. If roots are good suspect Ambrosia beatles - usually a pinhead sized hole with dusty sawdust below or… just a nibble and that is hard to find. Gil Schieber, Plantsman, Skipley Farm
I have a few like that this year. A couple seem like they are in the process of dying. Got another one or two that I feel like they are confused what time of year it is and are still dormant.
I’d really like to try temperature cycling these few trees but I don’t have a fridge big enough although they are in fabric pots.
I bought a full tree last year that never really budded right - the leaves barely budded out. Tiny leaves. I thought it was dying but in the fall we had really weird weather - got cold and then hot. I had a bunch of trees flower and this one flowered and started growing. It was like they decided it was spring already.
I ran into the grower I bought this weird acting tree from and he thought it would be fine after a winter. He was right.
It seems quite healthy. Also our Anna’s or Dorsett Golden’s are not blooming. But I have no idea what rootstock they are on. But one of the Dorsetts set some blooms.
The only tree of real concern is a Yates that got fireblight in the bloom. I headed it down to the tallest live closed bud and sprayed it with Copper spray again.
