GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

09-07-2006, 11:38 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

writes

K wrote:
Helen writes
Five or six years ago I rescued a small apple tree from a skip. Lots of
Tlc, food and watered gave me five to ten large, juicy, delicious apples.
Last year, baby apples appeared, dropped a few in June, and went on
dropping until no apples left on tree at all. Same this year - only five
left up tp now.

Any ideas,. anyone? Would be loathe to say goodbye to my Rescued tree.

A bit dry, perhaps?
--
Kay

The same thing happened to me last year and this. I have a mature
cooking apple; last year's crop was about 3 apples! This year I have
started with hundreds of fruit in May, which have been dropping ever
since.

If the tree has too many in one year, it will exhaust it enough for it
to have a very poor crop the next, and it will establish a pattern of
biennial bearing. So some dropping is a good thing.

I have thinned, and have been watering (which I didn't do last
year); I leave the hose running slowly for about 30 mins.

ISTR reading several years ago the theory that apples anywhere S and E
of the line from Severn to Wash are short of rainfall over the summer to
the tune of 1 inch a month.

The other thing that might be worth trying would be an annual mulch of
garden compost with the idea of gradually increasing the water retention
of the soil.

Some fruit
are still dropping but the worst seems to be over (fingers crossed).
There is still a decent crop left, but with this wind I expect to lose
more.

--
Kay