Ideally, an apple tree in the garden produces a slightly larger yield of large and tasty fruits every year. However, it can almost drive a hobby gardener to despair if the harvest fails due to a lack of apple blossoms.
Why isn't my apple tree blooming?
An apple tree will not bloom if it is too young or of a variety that only blooms every two years. Lack of care such as insufficient water supply, incorrect nutrient supply and improper tree pruning can also inhibit flowering.
The search for the causes
First of all, you should not panic if it is a relatively young apple tree with grafting on a half-stem or standard tree. Even with young seedlings that were grown from a core, it can take around seven to ten years until you get your first apple harvest. However, older apple trees can also become flowerless without a specific disease being present. With apple varieties such as the Boskoop, so-called alternation can mean that sufficient flowers are only produced every two years.
Emergency measures for poorly flowering trees
It can often be due to poor care by the gardener when an apple tree blooms poorly or not at all. Then the following factors should be checked:
- the water supply
- the supply of nutrients
- the type of tree pruning
If the apple tree is on very sandy and therefore permeable soil, it should be watered sufficiently once every week in autumn and spring. In addition, when fertilizing, you need to pay attention to the composition of the fertilizer if you do not only fertilize with organic materials. If too much nitrogen gets to the shallow tree roots, flowering behavior can be weakened. Therefore, limit the entry of nitrogen into the area of the tree disc and ensure an adequate supply of potassium.
Cut the tree correctly
Winter pruning is very important for the vitality of an apple tree. However, you should always leave annual branches standing. Since an apple tree only forms buds and thus bears flowers on two-year-old wood, excessive pruning can quickly lead to a lack of flowers. Some varieties, such as the star reindeer, also form the buds farther up the front of the branches. So if you shorten the branches too much, you will also remove all future flowers with the cut. Nevertheless, you should prune your apple tree regularly in winter and summer. The more water shoots you remove from the top of the tree crown in summer, the more energy the apple tree can put into the flower buds over the winter.
Tips & Tricks
Sometimes, even during late night frosts, all the flowers fall off the apple tree. Like particularly rich harvest years, this is part of nature's rhythm. However, if there is no apple blossom in the long term, another apple variety should be grafted onto the tree.
