Newbie question, I know. I have about 60 apple trees that I purchased last spring. 40 are on dwarf or semi dwarf rootstocks, the rest standard. I had not expected them to flower last year as I thought they were only a year old (per nursery info), but all but two of them did (and those two were purchased st a different nursery). However, zero apples.
The apple trees are in an area that was recently burned in the North Complex / Bear fire, so last year I assumed there were no apples due to the lack of pollinators in the area. But, I imagine it could also be that the trees are just young. Is it normal for apple trees to blossom in their first year or two without producing apples? Or should I be renting bees this year?
I did try and google this, and searched the forum before posting, but haven’t yet found a way to word the question thst results in the answers I’m looking for.
No, it will produce fruits if the blooms got pollinated, but most apples are self-incompatible and need to be pollinated with different apple trees to produce fruits.
So you should have two things, different cultivars (blooms at the same time), and a pollinator.
Apple trees bloom and hold their fruit when they are the right age, have the proper pollinators near by, bees and flies; and the bloom time also depends on the variety. Pristine is precocious and bloomed its second year and fruited as well. It took 10 years for my Enterprise to bloom and produce fruit. Since my Jonagold was a triploid, it required two different pollinators. Each variety of apple tree has its own clock. Weather,soil, sun and water play differently depending on your zone. Also chill hours, yet another factor. The list of variables is long. With all of the trees you have planted, you will have plenty of apples. Your trees are very young.