6 years Dwarf Fruit Trees have not blossomed yet

apple tree (L) peach tree (C) pear tree (R) ( photo / image / picture from Green Fingers's Garden )
Hello Fellow Gardeners! Here I am with my first question for you all. I Planted 2 apple and 2 pear trees on the spring of 2008 both dwarf varieties (all came in as 2 feet long one year old stems ready to plant from summer stone nursery in TN.). Only one apple and one pear tree made it to the next Spring. Now, I was suppose to get fruits as the trees became 2-3 years old. Six spring later, my dwarf trees have not even blossom yet. However, in the fall of 2012 I found one year old (one tag says semi-dwarf and another says dwarf but I am leaning towards dwarf based on its growth rate) peach tree on sale at Lowes and planted in the middle of my existing dwarf trees. To my astonishment I see the full blossom on the newly planted peach tree this year.
My question is what is wrong with my 6 yrs old dwarf apple and pear trees? should we take them out and plant new trees there or how long should we wait for them to blossoms. I do not have any fruit tree growing experience. I am not sure if you can see the the picture clearly but the peach tree in the middle has blossoms. Please help/advise!

 

I am having a hard time seeing the trees, but I think they should have bloomed by now, but don't give up on them.

1st) prune them.

2nd) fertilize them with a fruit tree fertilizer.

3) Keep them sprayed with a fruit tree spray schedule even if they aren't bearing. They need to be sprayed with an insecticide/miticide and a fungicide on a regular basis if you plan to get fruit from them. Usually the first spray of the Spring is a dormant oil spray , but I think you missed that window of opportunity. Don't stress too much over it though.

4) What varieties of apples do you have? do they flower, but not bear? you may have a cross pollination issue rather than a not bearing fruit issue.

5) check with your local extension service for your county and ask for help ( this will be tailored to your area). You have different weather from most of the rest of us so you need to follow the recommendations of what works in your area from the county extension service.

6) invest in a decent sized sprayer for the trees. You will need to spray.

7) I don't have any pears nor experience with them. Maybe someone else will, but they may take a long time to bear.
Some apples take YEARS to bear fruit.

 

Thanks Carolyn, I will check with the local extension service as well. The apple is dwarf either red delicious or gala, could not recall witch one I lost. No they never bloomed ever, that's why I am thinking should I still keep them or plant new trees.

 

Greenfingers...I would plant another tree if it is a red delicious. I can't think of any other tree with less flavor than that one. I really hope you have a gala. There is nothing more disappointing than to finally get a crop and it was boring. Also, check for cross pollination compatibility for what ever you have or choose to do. If you have no cross pollination you will not get any apples. If someone in the area has trees it won't be so critical, but you need to make sure you can do all you can for the assurance of getting a crop.

Honestly, if you want an apple tree with less work look into the "spray-less" trees that are on the market, you will need to order them from a mail order catalog (Stark Bro.'s, Miller's, or maybe Adams Co. Nursery). there are several varieties to choose from. I have one called Freedom that is a really tasty one. dark red and lots of flavor. it is disease resistant not insect resistant, but there are many who don't spray it at all and still get a decent crop from it. You just need to spend the time pruning it each spring.


This is my personal assessment of the ones we have or have tried. Not everyone will like what I do or will they maybe have the same results as we do in our particular climate here. soil, water, rain, nutrients all will make a difference in the final produce of each tree.


Freedom...Excellent apple (to me anyway) not a huge apple. You can eat the whole thing, unlike the liberty which is way to big to eat by one person.
Mac-free I can't say either way on this one...I just don't like macintosh which is what it really reminds me of.
Enterprise I think we had one of these and I didn't like it at all and we cut it down.
Liberty my least favorite... A HUGE apple makes a white applesauce. Ours just isn't as spot free as implied it should be.
Jonafree..another great one
Goldrush..another favorite, but not ripe until Oct for me... great keeper though- 9 months.

See if they will grow in your area.

We plant out trees about 15' apart for mature growth. If your trees aren't that far aprt (apples, I am speaking of) you may want to move them in the Fall. If they are leafing out now it is too late for this Spring to do so.



If you order new tree's really stay away from the dwarf size unless you are container planting. They need staked. You will always need to trim around, work around, mow around, walk around the that.

 

I'll be watching this thread. I, too, have 2 pear trees and 2 apple trees that were planted in 2008 that have never bloomed.

 

Carolyn, I am so glad I joined this group. I wish I had access to this wealth of information 6yrs back! I picked the dwarf variety because the internet is full of cute dwarf trees bearing more fruits than leaves. Also, there is an orchard 3hrs drive away from our home, we take our kids (5yrs and 7yrs old now) for pick your own cherry, peach apples and all the trees there are dwarf varieties(8'-10'tall only). So I though It would be perfect for our little yard to have some little trees that do not take years to bear fruits. I knew the pollination is absolute but since they never bloomed, I was skeptical about adding more trees to the garden. Since then we have planted a semi dwarf cherry (3yrs old now) and a dwarf peach(1.5yrs old) both from lowes and both bloomed this spring. Maybe we should consider planting the varieties you recommended in place of older dwarf trees. I'll look into the nurseries' stock and plant some(at least 2 each for pollination) this fall. Thank you so much again I will update the progress here!


Netty, I suppose your fruit trees are regular full size trees right? I know they take 5-7 years to bear that is why I went for dwarf ones. I should have done research for a reputable nursery or should have planted regular trees instead Sad . Keep us posted about your trees Smile

 

Yes, the Pear trees are regular size trees. I know one is an Anjou, but I lost the other tag. Looking at my notes, I see the apple trees were planted in 2010 and they were much younger.

 

Green Fingers. Before you purchase any trees look at a pollination chart or follow the recommendations on the variety for a pollinator tree.

Yes, the dwarf trees are cute, but they don't anchor themselves very well into the soil. Often they topple over after a storm or are blown over. As your children grow the semi-dwarf trees are easy and fun for climbing. It won't hurt the tree and they don't get too tall for it. We prune ours so they are open in the center and train the branches to grow out instead of up.


pruned ( photo / image / picture from carolyn's Garden )
Some varieties lend themselves to an open center better than a central stem, but it is up to you how you chose to prune. But prune you must! It isn't an option.


I never plan on a crop for at least 4 years after planting. If I get one or two apples I am surprised, but glad to at least try the fruit before it gets any bigger, just in case it isn't a keeper tree. or it can be moved to another (far away) spot.

 

Absolutely, I will be very careful this time before investing my time and money in more fruit trees. I guess there is no shortcut to success! Thanks for sharing the picture of your pruned tree Carolyn

 

Apple and pear both take a while to produce well. Ours are 4 years old and just getting started. But like Carolyn says,m pruning is necessary for apples. Do not prune the pear tree though. It isn`t needed for pears.

 

Mart, we have never pruned our apple tree properly because it looked so tiny. I'll definitely do that this year. Thanks.

 

My Ugly Duckling. ( photo / image / picture from Green Fingers's Garden )

Guess what everyone?..........we had an apple first time on our dwarf apple tree, which I thought is not blooming at all. It must have been a single blossom and the crab apple trees planted along the side walk on the main road must have helped in pollination because we just had a single apple tree. I have no Idea how that happened but I was quite shocked when I first spotted the little apple. I think the tree must have heard my conversation with the hubby about replacing it with a new fruit tree in the Fall. :-D It looks like Gala and tasted just fine.

 

Congrats. Looks wonderful and tasty to me. Must prune mine again.

 

Well, what a surprise and a great one at that. an apple. It must have been thinking...I need to do something no matter how small, huh?
We still haven't gotten anything off of the honeycrisp that is out there (ggrrr!!!) and I don't think there are any fruit spurs on it this fall either, so that means no fruit come Spring! The one HC tree we did have apples on my dear husband pushed on the tree and broke it at the graft... it was leaning too much for his liking.


We planted a few new trees several years ago and this year we got a few apple from several of them. My biggest surprise is that the Liberty that we have that is mature, I don't think is a Liberty. hmmm. Now I wonder what it really is, but no matter what we are cutting it down as soon as we have time. It is a spotty nasty apple. It is a good thing I wasn't thinking when I ordered the last liberty because I wasn't going to replant this variety. The new one reminds me more of an empire than anything else.

Keep a spray schedule in mind now for the Spring. look for fruit spurs on the branches for an indication of blossoms for next Spring. A fruit spur looks like a small new branch about an 1/2 to one inch long sticking straight up from the branch. a branch that has flat buds is all leaf growth for next year.You may see quite a few more apples come Fall next year.

 

Lucky you Green Fingers! I did not get a single piece of fruit this year, but added a dwarf Macintosh tree and a Northern Spy tree. Keeping my fingers crossed for next year!