Fruit Trees - No Fruit this Year?

[MarkF48]

Up in the Northeast.....

Last year I had a banner year and was giving apples away to friends. This year is altogether different and while the apples, peaches, and even a crabapple had good blossoms, the apple trees appear not have any fruit, the peaches are really sparse, and the crabapple doesn't seem to have anything. I had not seen much in the way of bees this for pollination this spring and in subsequent months and am wondering if this might be part of the problem, which is pretty bothersome if this is a trend. I had watched an eye opening documentary a while back about the diminishing bee population.
Wondering how everyone else is doing or if my lack of fruit is isolated instance. If you have bee hives it might be worth mentioning as a comparison to those like myself who don't.

 

[KretZ]

Same here with the zuchinni, we started manually transferring the pollen with a q-tip and now we have zuchinni coming out of our ears....

 

[Clint S]

Took a 4 mile walk yesterday and only 1 in 10 trees had apples. As far as bees, when walking the wild flowers on the side of the road seemed to be covered with them.

 

[boggen]

last year peach tree only produced 2 dozen if that. there was some heavy cold winds during blooming and ripped most of the blooms off.

this year it is looking good.

 

[Tollster]

Could be a number of factors such as late frost, which seem more common in the past.

this was one in the last five years we didn't have one, and the super spring growth reflected it county wide.. My apples are awesome this year..

We had plenty of wild bee's, I can hear them working the pears, and the honey locust tree when they flower, one of the coolest sounds all spring, because there are just so many... I always try the line of sight, but its just hard to get a bearing on where they're flying to and from.. one of these days I'll find the honey pot...

 

[CalG]

Up in the Northeast.....

Last year I had a banner year and was giving apples away to friends. This year is altogether different and while the apples, peaches, and even a crabapple had good blossoms, the apple trees appear not have any fruit, the peaches are really sparse, and the crabapple doesn't seem to have anything. I had not seen much in the way of bees this for pollination this spring and in subsequent months and am wondering if this might be part of the problem, which is pretty bothersome if this is a trend. I had watched an eye opening documentary a while back about the diminishing bee population.
Wondering how everyone else is doing or if my lack of fruit is isolated instance. If you have bee hives it might be worth mentioning as a comparison to those like myself who don't.

Here in S. VT it is similar. One of our two pear trees is about barren after a good yield last season. AND...just the opposite for the tree right next to it. (Different varieties). The peach trees have fruit, but nothing to thin. If every fruit ripens, we will have some for the table (4-5 year old trees)

The small fruits are doing VERY WELL!. Don;t get too hung up on bees, (though more were observed this spring than in previous years). there are many many pollinators.

A cool and rainy couple of days can really knock down the flowers if they fall on just the wrong time.

 

[bcjmmac]

I second the weather remarks. We have a "thin" looking crop this year despite having 8 bee hives within 100 yds of the orchard. What we did have was a late frost combined with cold/wet weather during blooming.

 

[wjmst]

That's funny. Last few years we haven't had much in the way of apples. This year our trees are loaded with them! Blueberries are good, but no pears, hazelnut, or plums.

 

[kcflhrc]

Our 2 apple trees are loaded. The apricot tree had maybe 5 and the pear tree just a few also. They sprayed the field south of us across the highway and I think some of the weed killer made it to our trees. Not happy

 

[oldballs]

With 20 assorted trees in my orchard and the other common trees around my place the past 40 years, it has been my experience that some years weird things happen. Bumper crops one year, fair crop another and occasionally no crop and it varies with the species. Another example is pests such as bag worms or tomato horn worms....one year we'll have a lot and other years hardly any or none at all. Only Mother Nature knows the real answer as far as I can tell.
Cheers,
Mike