What to do if your favorite apple tree does not bear fruit
Every gardener dreams of a healthy garden, fruitful trees. And what if the apple tree has not been bearing fruit since planting for more than seven years? Such problems often happen with the apple tree. Not only do you have to wait a long time for the harvest, but after the allotted time the tree pleases only with its beautiful foliage and healthy appearance.
Research into the causes of infertility
In other cases, you should take a closer look at why the apple tree does not bear fruit, and gradually remove the causes of infertility:
- improper tree planting;
- crown formation does not comply with the rules;
- leaving does not meet the requirements of agricultural technology;
- non-zoned variety with all the consequences.
Each of these areas can lead to sad results.
Correct planting of apple trees
You need to purchase seedlings only in specialized farms. At the same time, the probability of buying a quality seedling of a zoned variety is high.
You need to buy a seedling carefully. It is good to inspect the seedling, it should be with a straight trunk and a developed root system. The place of the scion should be clearly visible. You should ask the seller about the characteristics of the variety or find out the name in order to look at the biology in the catalog. The correct planting of the apple tree is the key to the future harvest.
The landing pit is prepared in a month. The apple tree loves a lighted space with low groundwater. There should be enough nutrition in the filling soil. A pit measuring 100x100x70 cm is filled by a third with fertile soil with the addition of several buckets of humus, superphosphate and wood ash a glass and half of this dose of potassium sulfide. The lower part is thoroughly mixed.
A wrongly planted tree will not bear fruit. Therefore, it is important to plant a tree in a hole, where the earth has already settled, and the trunk will not go down, the root collar will not wash out when watering.
A layer of nutrient soil without fertilization is added to the prepared soil and a hole is poured to compact the soil. The root system of the seedling is placed on this fertile pillow and sprinkled on top so as not to deepen the neck. Deepening causes delayed fruiting. At the same time, you need to put a peg and tie a seedling for two years. Trampling and watering the seedling, create its touch with the fertile soil layer.
How to shape the crown of an apple tree
Pruning and shaping begins in the fourth year. Techniques for forming the crown of an apple tree can be viewed in the video tutorial on the website. It is considered correct when pruning young apple trees to restrain the growth of the tree in height, to prevent the growth of branches inside the crown, so as not to thicken the tree. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the fruit twigs, to remove tops, annual shoots that thicken the crown. But when pruning and harvesting, you need to take care of the short branches of the fruit, on which flower buds are formed in spring. When doing pruning, you need to know that with the hard removal of several skeletal branches, the tree will begin to recover and the yield will be minimal.
If all branches of the apple tree are directed upwards, there will be no hearths.It is necessary to make a gradual formation with a horizontal deflection of the branch. A load is attached to the vertical branch for its gradual deflection. Another way is to bend the trunk with a rope.
In the fall, when the tree has dropped its foliage, a sparrow can fly through the branches in all directions. This means that the apple tree is forming correctly.
If the apple tree sheds color, there may be no apple trees nearby, the flowers have not been pollinated. Flowers are open for a short period of time, do not have time to pollinate, the variety is not zoned. The flowers are deformed, do not fully open, fall off - the work of the larva of the weevil beetle, the flower beetle. The apple tree may lack food and moistureand she drops the ovaries.
Pruning apple trees in the area of the root system can be a cardinal technique for the beginning of fruiting. With good nutrition and with a predominance of nitrogenous fertilizers, the roots provide the growth of the tree to the detriment of fruit formation. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce or eliminate nitrogen in fertilizing, and cut the roots at a distance from the projection of the crown to the ground. Having received stress, the apple tree will remember that it is necessary to take care of the procreation and throw away the fruit twigs, called pods.
You can feed the apple tree with old iron nails, or buy a special preparation containing iron salts in an assimilable form. If, after all the measures, a healthy tree does not bear fruit, then it will have to be replaced, there are some instances of barren trees.
Diseases of apple trees leading to infertility
All activities that try to awaken the tree to fruiting will not help the sick specimen. If a tree has been sick with fungal or bacterial diseases for several years and no treatment is carried out, it weakens. It takes strength to fight the disease, and the formation of fruits becomes secondary, when everything is aimed at survival. At first, the yield of a diseased tree decreases, and then the apple tree stops even blooming. If you miss apple disease and to start their treatment late, you can be left without apples.
When purchasing a variety, you should ask whether fruiting occurs every year. There are apple trees that give a big harvest in a year. In any case, you should take care of your fruit tree and regulate the number of apples on the branches. With a bountiful harvest, the apple tree depletes its strength, and its immune system cannot cope in extreme conditions. In this case, the tree is more threatened by winter freezing and spring burns. Only full compliance with all measures aimed at maintaining a healthy garden will give a positive result.