I have a Waltana apple tree on m111 rootstock. It is in it’s fourth year in the ground. So far every year it’s had fruit it seems to drop them early. Last year and the year before it dropped apples around September, and today I had two apples drop. My understanding is this apple should be ready around October or even late October.
I live in California near the coast, but I get hot dry summers with cooling in the evening. There was a little bit of wind today so that may have been a factor.
Any ideas as to why this tree seems to drop fruit before ripening? Attached is the picture of one apple that fell. The seeds were brown, but flavor and texture were not good and tasted unripe to me. The other is in the fridge.
I’m not familiar with your apple variety nor with your location, but “summer drop” is not unusual with some varieties in some locations nor with apples in general. Apples trees tend to set more fruit than they can carry. Toward the height of the season, the tree seals off some or even a lot of the crop, and it drops. There are many reasons for pruning trees and thinning the crop. Choosing which fruit to allow the tree to carry so that the crop load is brought within the bearing capacity of every branch is one reason. This acts to limit the amount of summer drop.
Your picture doesn’t show any insect damage, but in my case codling moth also causes my trees to shed individual apples before ripening.
Thanks for the reply! Summer drop as you described it seems like what could be going on. The branch that dropped the two fruit this week probably had a few too many apples on it. Although, overall I don’t think the tree is bearing too much. I’ll add a picture of full tree below. Hopefully I can get some apples to fully ripen this year.
Waltana apples are beginning to drop again. They are much redder than I have seen from the tree thus far. Still a significant number of apples left, so I’m hoping some will fully ripen this year. So far I’d say about ten or so have dropped in the last two weeks.
Most of the dropped apples have codling moth damage, but not all. The tree also begins to get shaded by the garage this time of the year and gets less and less sun exposure. I’ve grafted a few other varieties on to see if they exhibit similar behavior. But that will be a few years out.
