Sweet 16 Apple Tree- not blossoming

My Sweet 16 apple tree will be 5 years old in April- It has yet to blossom. I planted a semi-dwarf Honey Crisp and semi-dwarf Haroldson at the same time and both have blossomed and bore fruit . I ordered all trees from Jungs - but the Sweet 16 has grown so tall that I think it is not a semi-dwarf- I pruned it last March. I live in the Madison, WI area. Does it take that long for this tree to blossom and bear fruit?? Thanks for whatever information you have

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Hmmm…you didn’t mention where you were located, but here in Michigan I had apples within a year or two, but that was a potted tree. I have Northern Spys doing the same thing, but it is to be expected with them.

I ordered a Candycrisp and Prairie Magic from Jung’s…both standards. The two trees could not be farther apart in size. The Candycrisp was HUGE, and grew like mad its first year, and then died midway through its second season…still scratching my head as to why.

The Prairie Magic was less diameter than a pencil, but is slowly coming along. I wasn’t pleased with the size nor the pruning for a bare root, and doubt I will order from them again.

Rmeyers:

I too live in WI (Menomonee Falls) and do purchase from Jung Seed Co. I find they often do not list what rootstock their fruit trees are on. However, when I call them before ordering they always look up the info for me. A good example is their Harrow Sweet pear I put on order for spring 2019. They list it available on “semi-dwarf” rootstock but no further information in their catalog. When I called them I found out it was on OH x Farmingdale 87. Sometimes it is best to get all info before ordering by calling.

I have many “semi-dwarf” apple trees on numerous rootstocks. When they started bearing fruit really depended on rootstock they were on, how fast the trees grew and also what variety they were. Those on MM111 can be a bit slower to come into production. Some varieties like Honeycrisp and Northern Spy are real slow to come into bearing compared to other varieties on the same rootstock.

Normally I find that planting a bare-root semi-dwarf apple tree purchased by mail order tends to take about 5years to start bearing a decent crop anyway. I would not be too discouraged just yet on your Sweet 16.

Your size issue concerns me however about the tree. Hopefully it truly is on a dwarfing rootstock and not on a standard rootstock as Jung’s often offers both choices on their apple trees. Mistakes can be made either at the nursery that produced the tree or when the tree was pulled for shipping to you.

My only advise is to give your sweet 16 more time to see what happens. I would NOT fertilize it anymore if you are still doing so. Time for the tree to get into bearing mode not vegetative mode. Starve it for nitrogen if you can.

You may want to reduce winter pruning as well and do more summer pruning as winter pruning heavily will stimulate more vegetative growth.

And finally, did you try any limb spreading? My honeycrisp was very slow to start bearing so I either tied the branches down or weighed them down so the branches are slightly below horizontal. The following season many branches that I did this on were covered in fruit buds. This is a good tip used by those who grow apples on tall spindle systems to reduce growth and get trees to form fruit buds quickly but it also works on non-bearing apple trees not grown tall spindle too. In your case I would definitely try it on the sweet 16.

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Sorry I typed that wrong about the Harrow sweet I ordered from Jung seed for spring 2019. Their “standard” version is on OH x F 97 and their “dwarf” version in on OH x F 87 for 2019. I ordered what they called “dwarf”.

Thanks for the inf. Both my Honeycrisp and Haroldson blossomed and had fruit the first year- can you imagine that? Also- the 2nd and 4th year(2018) the Honeycrisp blossomed and had lots of fruit- The Haroldson blossomed the 2nd year and had fruit - but no blossoms the 4th year. Both the trees did not blossom the 3rd year due to a cold snap in the spring. I will hold back on any pruning in March of the Sweet 16 - it is much taller than the other 2. The Sweet 16 has never blossomed- I’ll wait and see what happens this spring for all 3 of them. Appreciate your response.

I live near Madison, WI which is in the southern part of Wisconsin.

Welcome to the forum. I am from that area.

Thanks!!!

Somewhere on here, I think it is by @thecityman, there is a picture of an apple or pear tree with one or two branches pulled down towards horizontal and the rest of the tree with a more upright growth pattern. There are a few flowers on the upright growth and the horizontal branch is loaded with flowers. Limb spreading/bending works pretty well.

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In my memory I thought it was a better photo than it is- you can’t tell a lot about the rest of the tree but take my word for it, there probably weren’t 10 blooms on the whole rest of the tree and the bent down limb was loaded. Also, you can’t really see the tie down and its possible I had removed it once the blooms opened, but this limb was tied down from fall of the previous year to spring of the year it bloomed. Nothing fancy- just twine tied down to a heavy stone. I probably didn’t have to tie it down so long (late fall) but I didn’t know that then and it worked so no big deal. It also had the advantage of helping to spread the tree- even though the string has long been removed, that limb is still basically horizontal to this day,
Hope this helps!

My Enterprise apple took ten years to blossom. That was thirteen years ago. The fruiting has been spotty ever since. If I were staying at my house I would saw it down!!!

Sweet 16 has been a bit stingy on blooming for me. It’s been quite a while since I got it (2011 or 2012), but I remember it bloomed fairly quickly. But it was pretty big at planting and was on B9 rootstock. After it flowered the first time, it seemed to skip years, even without having a big crop in between. On the positive, the fruit is quite distinctive and I like it a lot.

Heh- OHxF 87 is supposed to be anywhere from 2/3 to 80% standard, depending on where you see it. Not really my definition of dwarf, though it’s not shocking for a nursery to stretch things a bit.

My dwarf Enterprise fruited fairly early and every year after. Strange yours is that poor of a tree.

I have two Sweet Sixteen. One was supposed to be a dwarf Fuji and the other one a dwarf SS. The Fuji grew much larger than my SS and finally gave me three apples which turned out to be a SS. I bought them at the end of the season at Home Depot for ten bucks each so I can’t complain really. They do seem to be a bit stingy on fruiting because they both seem ready.

The flavor when cherry tasting is wonderful and quite surprising. We have had a couple of apples that have that licorice/anise flavor to them and although it’s an interesting flavor I couldn’t eat a whole lot of them. I think picking early and not let them hang too long may give me the cherry flavor I like.

I must have a soil problem. Or very different soil and climate.

Sweet 16 is somewhat late to begin bearing, so your situation is not unique. I have two, one on standard antonovka and one on b118. 9 years later, I have yet to see a bloom on the standard, and have had two years bearing from the b118 which was grafted 1 year after I planted the first. I haven’t done much to hasten production, but agree with previous posts that bending limbs down can hasten production, also using a very light touch when dormant pruning and instead doing the pruning in summer. This variety is pretty vigorous, so strategies to minimize that factor should help. Great apple, though! I think it also benefits from extra calcium…

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My Apple Espalier did not blossom his year. ( last year it did) It is in the ground now 3 years. Bought through Monrovia. Completely leafed out. I pruned it according to Roland’s advice, getting rid of the more aggressive branches up top. I am disappointing. Last year I had Apples. Zone 6a.

Collen,
Young tree like that may skip a year after fruiting at a young age (2nd year in ground).

I feel that espaliered trees are less likely to go biennial. You should see fruit next year if the pruning this year is done correctly.

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Interesting, my sweet sixteen has the opposite problem. It blossoms so much it hasn’t grown at all in three years. Still pencil thin with a couple branches, a few leaves and about a thousand blossoms every season. This year I’ll remove all the fruit to see if I can get it to grow a bit.