I am beginning to wonder if weather is more important than the age of the tree in terms of blooming/producing fruit. My trees have been planted each spring for the past 8 years and many times I have also planted in the fall as well. Up until now, I have really only had blooms and fruit on my chums (which are known to be precocious) , my Italian plum, which is the oldest of my trees, and the pear trees that were here before I was. This year everything (almost) is blooming, all of my hybrid plums except my purple heart, and suddenly half of my 40 or so apple trees regardless of whether they are 6, 7 , 8 years old or just planted this spring…Now I realize that some of those apples may be known precocious varieties…but this seems like a huge coincidence…since it is the conditions of the previous year that determine how well flower buds form, I am wondering if there was something ideal about last years weather, as it doesn’t seem possible that all of a sudden most of my apples which are anywhere from 8 years to ! month in the ground are suddenly blooming together. Incidently, the weather conditions at the places I bought my trees from this year would have approximated my conditions here last year as they are fairly close by.
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