Apple tree, poor apple harvest every year

We have several fruit trees. Most do very well, but every year the cox eating apple tree bears almost no fruit.
The cooking apple tree next to it produces loads, as does the crab apple and plum.

It never seems to grow too well either, the leaves are never quite the lush green, more light green.

Can anyone shed any light on what might be the problem?

Thanks

Maybe the cox apple tree requires a pollinator tree.. add ash from the fireplace to make the leaves greener. The varroa mite has wiped out most "wild" honey bee's.. I started 3 bee hives this year.. you def. tell the difference on all the wild fruit trees on the farm. The plus is a free supply of unheated, unfiltered, raw honey. I never knew honey came in so many diff. flavours.. I'm expanding to 10-12 hives for this spring.

I do not know if this well help or not . My uncles Apple tree had pretty much stopped producing and the tree was a mess . I went over and cut it back , way back . He was pissed at me for cutting it so far down and that apple tree produced one apple the following year!!! The next year it went crazy and for the first time in years it produced a ton of apples . All were in very good shape . Was it because I pruned it back ???? Who knows ,but it worked . Been going strong ever since .

also, how old are the trees? Dosent the age of the tree have something to do with it bearing how much fruit? (yes I realize this statement is wide open)

Ken, I'm not sure if lack of bees would be the problem, the other apple trees around it seem to do fine. Would the Cox tree need pollinating differently to the other apple trees?
Maybe you would be able to start a thread on your bees, I'd be quite interested to see how you go about collecting the honey.

Most of the trees are the same age, about 10-15 years. The cox's has never done so well as far as I can remember, it gets pruned back every couple years.
Aren't you supposed to prune it back every 3 years or something?

Thanks

kensfarm said:

Maybe the cox apple tree requires a pollinator tree.

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That was my first thought and I still wonder if that is not a major cause to low production.

Some fruit trees are self pollinating. Some cross pollinate with ONLY SPECIFIC other trees. So it is very possible that the baking apples are being pollinated by themselves, or even by the Cox apple tree, but it is also possible the Cox needs a different type of tree to pollinate it than you have nearby.

But I don't know what type of Cox apple you have. I have seen the Queen's Cox and the Cox Orange Pippen. Both are English apple trees and they have similar pollination requirements but the Queens Cox is often considered a self pollinator while the Cox Orange Pippen is not. There are a few "families" or "groups" of apple varieties. Trees of the same general family or group will pollinate other trees of that same general related family/group.

Cox Orange Pippen is the one we have Bob, any idea what kind of tree is needed to pollinate them?

Jim, offhand no, but I'm sure a quick websearch would turn up a list of specific trees.

My dad used to have a bunch of fruit trees and I remember that he had to make sure his apple varieties would cross pollinate with each other. We also visit an apple orchard every year to pick apples and they have their trees planted in rows so that the trees of similar families will be in close proximity to the other trees of the same families to insure proper pollination. It drives my wife nuts when we go there because they use antique tractors to pull wagon loads of people to the various sections of the orchard. I spend most of my time talking to the drivers about the tractors and the trees and not much time picking the apples.

BTW, working woman asked a good question too. Age can be a real issue. Kensfarm's points about fertilizer needs to be heeded. . . it might be an age issue, it might be a health issue, it might be a pollination issue, or it might be a combination!!!

B_Skurka said:

. . it might be an age issue, it might be a health issue, it might be a pollination issue

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It might be firewood.

Mith,


I am far from an expert on apple trees. But I have been working with many trees here in the last few years. Here is what I learned:


You need to prune your trees every year. Prune anything that is growing vertically, up or down. Prune any branches that are crossing other branches. I have saved several very old apple trees this way but it took several years for them to produce.


Apple trees produce fruit only on their second year growth, so you need to be selective on how you prune.


You can safely prune 30% of the tree each year.


Prune any "suckers" that seem to grow from it's base. Hope this is of some help. If it works... send me a pie!


Gary

Gary,
I think I'll definitely have to try pruning following your guidelines next year, looking at it out the window there are quite a few branches that should have been pruned per your guidelines.
Thanks

Mith said:

Maybe you would be able to start a thread on your bees, I'd be quite interested to see how you go about collecting the honey.

Click to expand...

I'll have to break the camera out and take some pictures.(I gave the Mrs a nice digital last Christmas).

I've spent my whole life running from wasps, yellow jackets, black hornets.. as kids.. we always were messing w/ them.. and hauling ass.

It's quite a different experience opening a hive w/ 30,000-70,000 bees and just standing there. Most times the bees are very gentle when working them.. but I have one hive that has gets pretty defensive.

I wear a full bee-suit.. and have never been stung w/ my suit on.. but have been stung on 3 or 4 occasions this year.. behind my ear .. on my neck .. chest .. luckily I only have a small reaction to the stings.. similiar to a mosquite bite.

Normally you're not suppose to get honey from 1st-year hives.. but I pulled about 100lbs from 2 hives I started in May2006. The 3rd hive I didn't start till mid summer. I'll work on getting some pictures together.

The guys gave you some good ideas to help w/ your tree.. I've been looking to see where I'd like to plant some fruit tree's on the farm.. seems any time I go to plant trees.. we end up in a drought.