"O.B." wrote:

Three years ago, we bought a house in north Alabama that had three apple
trees in the backyard. At the time, they were 5 years old and the home
owner said that he had a "few" apples on them. This was in August 2001.

The next year, there were no apples. One tree's leaves wilted and many
of the branches turned black. Thinking it was a disease, I cut off all
the bad limbs. The other two trees grew fine but produced no fruit.

A family member suggested that we prune the trees in the following
winter. So in Spring 2003, we pruned the trees pretty hard.
Unfortunately, we had a late freeze in May and it killed many of the
blossoms (including those on a neighboring peach tree). So the trees
just put on new growth for the entire year, but no fruit.
BRBR


The problem is the loss of fruit due to frost/freeze.
The trees had enough energy to produce a normal crop, but lost it. Thus, the
energy went into growth.. When a tree is in a vigorous growth cycle, it won't
produce fruit buds for the next year's crop.

I would prune normally and be prepared for a "snowball" bloom next year. It
will be important to greatly thin - and early to prevent biennial bearing.
This is a condition where the trees only bear a crop in alternate years.

John Schmid
John C. Schmid