Hardly any apples on the tree this year.🙁

I’m no expert.
I have one apple this year so far. The year before last I had none and last year although there were plenty on the tree they had brown rot. We bought the tree 10years or so ago. My neighbours tree just had a few misshapen apples and he has cut the branches off.

several apple varieties are biennial for one reason or another. Personally I always thin my apples because apple production is a very heavy strain on a tree
some online help
www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=280

I think we had a very late frost. Several of my apple trees have no fruit and no damsons either.

I’ve got about 8 on mine this year, last year more than I could count. I think it’s developed a biennial habit despite my best efforts. Some of my other fruit bushes and trees have suffered from drought and/or late frost. You win some, you lose some. Hoping to get picking berries this afternoon if it stops raining!

The Bramley is full of apples this year ( last year not so good) and our eating apple tree, Red Windsor is loaded with fruit.
The Bramley is about 50 years old and the Windsor only eight years old.
If your tree was planted in 1920 then it’s a hundred years old, pretty old for an apple tree I would have thought.Try giving it lots of water ( apples are nearly all water) and a good feed in Spring next year.

It will be a late frost at blossom time , although we had a very late frost it was after the fruit had set and the trees are loaded

I cut down a small apple tree and every year it sends up suckers from the base. This year I decided to let five or six suckers grow tall and am wondering what they will do perhaps decide to be crab apples?

My plum tree is the same. Most years I find myself giving plums to anyone who’ll take them but this year I’ve counted the grand total of 13. The blossom was out for a very short time this year and together with a late frost probably did for them.

For the last 2 years we have had very few apples on our tree, so I told it, very firmly, that if it didn’t sort itself out this year we were going to chop it down and extend our veggie patch.
It’s absolutely loaded this year, but I don’t know how many will make it through the summer.........it seems likely that it will have saved itself.
The Walnut tree only had 2 walnuts on it this year, time for a chat later in the year methinks.

I like that strategy, @Oopsadaisy3! I’ll tell them to give it a good talking to.,

Maybe a good feed of something will help, too. We had masses of rain last autumn/winter so I don’t think it could be too dry. Blossom was over and fruit presumably set well before it turned hot. I don’t think they had much in the way of frost either (Oxford). But could be wrong.
Thanks, everybody.

Pollinators?

Witzend we are only a stones throw away ! I’ll come to yours and give it a strong warning.

Ours is in a frost pocket but did well this year, so far.......

Oopsadaisy can you come and give my plum tree a strong warning too? This year, again, after a good showing of blossom, we are down to four fruits. We had five, but one dropped off recently. We’ve only had one year where it has fruited prolifically since we planted it. As for apples, this estate was built on the site of an old farm and many of the orchard trees were left in situ as part of the landscaping so every year there are apples of lovely old varieties for the taking. This year there’s a lot of small fruit on the ground, but looks to be a lot that will come to size again.