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So last fall we planted two apple trees and this spring two peach trees. The apples are a Red Delicious and a Gala. They both bloomed this spring, but the Delicious just dropped the blooms and didn't set fruit. The Gala set a small crop of fruit, much of which suffered attrition along the way, attacked by birds, insects, dropping early etc. But today I harvested ten perfectly ripe Gala apples!

They were wonderful! I didn't even know apples are another one of those things that are so much better home grown and fresh picked! Sweet, juicy, crisp, delicious.

Next year I hope to have a lot more apples, some peaches, and some figs from the fig trees that are growing very well from cuttings! If all that comes to pass, I will think we are doing pretty well on our mini-homestead venture.

Yay! Congratulations

Yep. I have found that even immature apples are great when used in cooking/baking etc.

-- ten apples is a perfectly respectable harvest in my book (we only had two fruits from the peach tree this year....)

That's great news. There's nothing like freshly picked fruit from your own tree!

Last year we inherited an old apple tree on our new/old property and it was absolutely loaded with apples. This year not a single fruit set on it. Loaded with blossoms but no fruit. Just don't understand it.

Glad for your success!

Did you have any spring frosts between early green cluster and bloom?

I'm sorry, but "early green cluster"?

rainbowgardener wrote:I'm sorry, but "early green cluster"?

Sorry Rainbow.

Apples grow at recognised stages.
Bud burst.
Mouse ear
Early green cluster
Green cluster
Pink bud
Bloom
Full bloom
80%petal fall
Full petal fall
Fruitlet
June drop
Harvest.

it's the way we know at what stage various jobs, chemicals, etc are done or applied.

OK.... I can't swear to it, because I am terrible on record keeping. But we had a mild and early spring and I don't think there were any frosts at that point. I looked back through everything I had posted here about the trees (THG basically is my record keeping !) and was reminded that the Delicious apple tree actually did set a little bit of fruit. It had a lot more blossoms than fruit, so some of the blossoms would have just dropped, but some did set fruit. The fruit disappeared when it was still tiny.

The whole pollination thing is fraught with problems Rainbow.
Too hot...too cold...too dry... too wet ..( even water can effect pollen viability.. ( One reason why we never spray in blossom time)
In some perculier years the stigmas can out grow the anthers so the pollen is left high and dry, causing poor pollination.
( this I believe can often happen in tomatoes,,,that's why shaking the plant by hand or by electric bee can help pollination).
If we ever get it completely right after some 6000 years plus...it will be a miracle!
Guess that's what makes growing so satisfying........when you get it right!