These two Pink Lady trees 20 feet apart in my backyard in Nassau County NY (7b) on Bud 9.
One is full of flowers and the other… not a single flower. Both get the same care. Both fruited last year.
Any ideas???
Mike
Mike
It’s possible it could be going biennial on you. Fruit buds might have been damaged during picking apples which sometimes happens to me when I get a helper or if I’m careless and in a hurry.
I harvested both of these last year and being that these are in my backyard (and not in the upstate orchard with 100 other trees) I harvested using scissors. Being that they were at the house they were pretty much neglected but for 2 sprays one at petal fall and another 5 weeks later.
Even if I damaged the buds it is unlikely that I damaged each and every bud on one tree and none on the other.
As to going biennial, the non-flowering tree only had 5-6 apples on it last year and the one that is flowering carried about 24 apples to term.
Mike
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Hmm those were the possibilities I immediately thought of but there are other possibilities such as soil or pruning differences, winter injury or blossom blast, lack of sunlight etc… You’ve been raising fruit for years so I may not have an answer you had not thought of already. Someone else may have other ideas.
I have decided that when you grow fruit the most important thing is to try and point it in the right direction. Sometimes no matter what we do it just goes where it wants to.
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Do they have the same solar exposure during late winter/early spring? With that white fence if 1 tree gets sun exposure earlier in the season it might wake up the buds earlier and then they got zapped by a cold spell while the other tree which was still in the shade slept safely.
Right but are they both exactly perpendicular south facing with no obstructions causing shading and so they both get exactly the same quality and duration of sun? Or is it angled or are there obstructions that result in 1 getting a bit more shade or lower exposure to the sun. Eg. due to angle of sun in later winter 1 tree gets 1-2hrs more sun than the other due to the angle of the fence, the house, neighbors trees, ect.
When you say both fruited last year, did both fruit similar amounts? Could the one have stressfully overproduced itself?
The fence runs East to West in a straight line with no obstructions.
That’s just it. The one that is overloaded with flowers this year is the one that had a nice fruit set (24 or so and nice size because I forgot about it until very late in the year). Look at the difference from yesterday morning. I will have much thinning to do ( see below.
The one that shows zero this year may have had 5-6 last year.
The soil should be the same for both. I guess 20 feet may make a difference in the soil profile.
Mike
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It sure can, especially if drainage oddities show up over that distance. Is there any chance one of those apple trees is between a garden and a drain, and may be receiving extra nutrients or water?
Now that you mention it … the prolific one is in the area where I put all the potted berries for the winter and I bury the pots in mulch to keep the roots from freezing in the above ground pots. That would have altered the soil quite a bit over the last 3-4 years.
This is why I love this place. Just asking and answering questions brings things to mind!!!
Thanx guys
Mike
CONCLUSION … MULCH HELPS ENRICH THE SOIL. Can I take credit for this discovery.???
I dunno, using mulch to amend soil, retain moisture, and prevent surface roots from freezing seems radical…
You probably also have some nutrients from those berry pots leaching out through their drainage. I don’t know about where you are, but the earthworms at my place love to congregate under my potted plants. If they also do that for you, they’d be carrying the breakdowns into the soil of that area, and also helping to aerate it.
I’ve experienced similar mysteries. Any meaningful difference in soil that dramatic would likely need to be about drainage, but I’ve had the same thing happen with two Damson plum trees 20 feet apart in same soil. Sometimes you just have to accept that even clones may behave differently for reasons unknowable or at least unknown. .
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I had the exact same thing happen and also with two Damson plums. In fact, one never flowered…EVER, and the other flowered and fruited, every single year. They were less than 20 ft. apart, in identical soil, same exposure, same plant date, same supplier, same everything.
Like Alan, I just chalked it up to one of those inexplicable mysteries.
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Ahhh!!! The mysteries that are the spice of of life !
As Einstein is reported to have said when someone commented as to how smart he was:
."If I knew 10% of what I don’t know then you might call me smart"
MIke
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