Anyone else have a serious reduction in orchard fruit this year?

[oregonkat]

My orchard is young, this is year 6. I have almost no fruit on my trees this year. Last year my pears and my apples were heavy, well not heavy, heavy but with enough fruit to need thinning. This year I have probably a third of that? I am afraid that our bee/pollinator populations must be dwindling over here which makes me very, very sad. Perhaps the fires last year in California really did a number on them. Anyone else with the same trouble?

 

[Ridgerunner]

When I was in Arkansas that happened to me all the time. Some years I'd have a great crop, some years nothing or maybe very little. It came down to the last frosts, when were they and how heavy were they. If a heavy one hit after the bloom, it would kill all the fruit that had tried to set on.

Apples and pears were usually not too bad, they were late bloomers. Plums and peaches were usually harder hit by frosts.

How warm was your winter? Apples and pears need a certain amount of cold days to set fruit, that can vary by variety. If your winter was unusually warm you may get very little fruit.

You might chat with your county extension office and see if they have anything to say about it. They should have local knowledge.

 

[AllenK RGV]

My fruit set this year is iffy. One orange tree is loaded the other one didn't seem to set a single fruit. The mulberry had a great year. I haven't paid attention to the junk orange trees that are just rootstock growbacks as they are only good for making lemonaide.

 

[oregonkat]

Our winter here was relatively mild, the flower set was good on all the trees and we did not suffer a frost, even for the plums. I will talk to the extension service as they might have insight, good point! Thanks.

 

[snow5164]

Has it been a windy spring ? One year out flowers blew off our trees and we ended up with almost no fruit ....

Hope you figure it out

 

[WthrLady]

we had a longer than normal, colder than normal spring. we only had cherries on one variety of tree and apples on ONE late blooming variety. That's an orchard of 40 trees and that's all we've got this year.

Some years are just like that. We did miss all the hail this spring and summer, but there wasn't any fruit to ruin. sigh. Oh well.

 

[AllenK RGV]

What is crazy is we had like 10+ inches of rain last month over 2 days. There was 30 inches or so of water in the streets. Now we are back in a drought. I don't have words for this weather. Other than it is nuts.

 

[WthrLady]

Ya. we went from normal wet to silly dry for extended time. So the irrigation in the orchards had to be run. Then the heat kicked with insane humidity for weeks on end, but no rain. But when the rain would come, it would be too much too fast, then back to prolonged dry.

My hay is cut and stored, so I really don't care what it does now. LOL.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Ya. we went from normal wet to silly dry for extended time. So the irrigation in the orchards had to be run. Then the heat kicked with insane humidity for weeks on end, but no rain. But when the rain would come, it would be too much too fast, then back to prolonged dry.

My hay is cut and stored, so I really don't care what it does now. LOL.

Awesome I hate needing hay and not finding any. Kudos.

 

[WthrLady]

Thanks! I'm hoping we put up enough! I'd also like to maybe get in one more cutting in October. We shall see.