Freezing frosts in Alabama???????

I live near Chicago, and have never seen the phenomenon you describe.
Apple trees need a certain amount of chilling to produce fruit. That brings
up another possibility that HIS variety won't produce fruit in the warm climate
of Alabama.

If O.B. has full size trees, they wont start producing fruit for at least 8
years.

Sherwin D.

Nasmen wrote:

"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