Apple tree has no fruit

Apple Tree Problems: How To Get Fruit On Apple Trees

Apple trees are a great addition to any landscape, and if healthy, will provide an abundance of fresh fruit. However, from time to time, apple tree problems do occur and require attention in order to keep trees as healthy as possible. Don’t let your tree trick you. Even if it appears to be vibrant, you may occasionally wind up with an apple tree without fruit. Apple tree fruiting issues can be disconcerting to home gardeners, so learning how to get fruit on apple trees is helpful.

How to Get Fruit on Apple Trees

It goes without saying that most apple tree fruiting problems can be avoided by growing healthy trees. Obviously, a healthy apple tree will produce more fruit than a sick tree. Providing optimal conditions for your tree and sticking to a regular maintenance schedule will help your tree produce the most fruit possible.

Address all insect or disease problems promptly, as fruit size and crop yield is dramatically influenced by both insect and disease damage. If you are unsure of how to diagnose or treat insect or disease issues, contact your local Cooperative Extension Department for assistance.

When Your Healthy Apple Tree Does Not Bear Fruit

An apple tree without fruit can happen for a number of reasons. Learning more about these apple tree problems can help if your apple tree does not bear fruit.

Environmental Issues

If your apple tree is healthy but does not set fruit, it could be due to climate issues. Fruit trees require a period of cold weather to end dormancy and encourage spring budding. If the winter is mild, growth will be slow and the blooming period extended. This makes the tree susceptible to frost damage, which influences fruit production.

Pollination Problems

In order for fruit to be produced, most trees must be pollinated. Cold weather and a reduction in pollinating insects can cause trees to blossom but bear no fruit. For best results with apple trees, plant two different varieties close together for cross pollination.

Other Considerations

Some fruit trees, including apple, may bear very heavily one year and only minimally the next. This condition is known as biennial bearing and is thought to be due to the influence that a very heavy crop has on crop production the following year.

An apple tree without fruit may not be getting enough sun or water. Poor fruit production can also be caused by over fertilizing. Provide a 2 to 3 inch (5-8 cm.) layer of mulch around the tree, but not touching the trunk, for protection and moisture retention.

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What are some reasons that our apple tree has no apples?

Our new house has 2 apple trees that have obviously seen better days. They appear to never have been properly pruned and are now scraggly and about 30′ tall.

In addition, one of the two trees didn’t produce apples this year. Is there a reason an tree would skip a season of making apples? Diseased?

I’m debating if it’s worth saving these two trees at all. I doubt I can prune back into any salvageable form but am willing to try. But if the tree isn’t producing apples anyways, I’m thinking it might be better off as firewood and we start over with a new tree (and properly take care of it).

1 Answer 1

Apples will produce much less fruit when:

• they are not pruned so the branches shade each other
• a late spring frost when the tree is in bloom can reduce yields by 80 to 90 percent
• some trees produce more fruit in one year and much less in the following year. On that forum page, user mr.shep lists some other reasons for a tree not to produce fruit (list formatting and grammar/spelling edits mine):

• rainfall when the tree was in bloom to prevent bee pollination,
• no Apple tree nearby to aid in pollination
• a severe pruning to force out too much new growth
• for spur type Apples the cutting off of the spurs
• too much Nitrogen which can cause too much vegetative growth at the expense of flower production
• a growth regulator applied when the trees were in bloom,
• an herbicide applied to the ground when the tree was about to bloom which can make the flowers fall off the tree.

There are other aspects to your choice of rejuvenate the existing trees or plant new.

• newer varieties might have resistance to pests and diseases that older ones do not
• you can prune a 30′ tall tree down to 15 or 20′ feet. You still need a ladder to harvest. Or you can plant a fully dwarf tree which will grow 6 to 10′ tall. Less ladder work, easier to net and prevent bird damage, easier to apply control measures.
• the existing location might not be optimal anymore if other plants have grown up that will shade it

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How to Grow An Apple Tree From Seed (Easy Tutorial)

Published on January 19, 2021 Last updated November 18, 2021 ♛ By Melissa J. Will

Use this simple tutorial to grow an apple tree using the seeds found in fruit from the grocery store. It’s an excellent beginner project for anyone wanting to try simple plant propagation. This same method works for pears as well.

Want to turn other food into plants? See How to Grow Avocado From Seed.

Grow Your Own Apple Tree

Of all the ways we can encourage a love of plants, nature, and gardening, it seems that starting something quite prolific from seed—like an oak tree from an acorn or an apple tree from seed—are sure ways to create a lifelong interest in growing. And how cool is it that you take the seeds from fruit you’re eating and grow them into fruit-bearing trees?

Contents

Before You Start

Before we dive into the step-by-step instructions there are a few things to know.

• For seeds to be viable (able to grow), they need to be mature. An apple you buy at the grocery store is very likely mature but an apple picked from a tree part way through the growing season will not have fully-formed seeds. So start with mature, ripe fruit.

• Apple seeds, along with other fruit seeds including pear, peach, and cherry, require stratification (cold, damp conditions) to prepare for germination. The amount of time required to stratify varies depending on the variety. It’s generally between 60 and 90 days. The instructions (below) show you how to mimic stratification.

• Not all apple seeds will sprout. Even if you do everything right, some types never sprout, and for those that do, only half may germinate. It varies a lot. So, increase your odds by starting a bunch, preferably from several different types of apples.

• You won’t get McIntosh apples from McIntosh seeds. Or any other variety (with a few exceptions*). If your apple seeds do grow to become fruit-bearing trees, the apples produced will not be same as the ones you started with. Most apple trees require cross-pollination from another apple tree so any apples produced will have genes from both (the tree you grew and the pollinator tree) and, similarly, no two seeds will produce genetically-identical trees. In other words: every seed has a different combination of genes. That’s why plant breeders who want specific varieties do not grow their trees from seed but instead propagate vegetatively, taking stems and grafting them onto other established rootstock, to grow genetically identical apples. *Antonovka seeds are one example of apple seeds that reproduce true to parent.

Personally, I love experimenting with seed starting, watching things grow, and propagating plants from food scraps is a favorite rabbit hole to explore.

And, what a wonderful thing for a child (or anyone) to grow something from a simple seed and nurture it for years to come.

How to Sprout Apple Seeds

This is how to germinate apple seeds. You can follow the same steps to sprout pear seeds as well.

Get Seeds Ready

Some apples have many seeds, some have few, others have none or just little white cases where you’d expect to find seeds. Pay attention to store bought apples like McIntosh, Delicious, Granny Smith, Sparta, Fuji, Gala, and so on, and, as you eat them, look for fully formed (dark brown) seeds.

It’s best to start quite a few (10-20) from different types of apples to increase your odds. If you do, be sure to keep each type separate and labelled so you know what worked.

Start with a ripe apple (one you would eat) to ensure the seeds inside are mature. Cut around the core to avoid damaging any of the seeds with your knife.

I like to take clear, close up pictures at this point so I have something to compare with later on.

Ever Find Sprouted Seeds In Your Apple?

When fruits become over-ripe, the hormones that control seed dormancy decline and the seeds within the fruit can actually start sprouting. This is called vivipary (“live birth”). If you ever find germinated seeds in your apple, sow them! And thank them for making propagation so easy.

Sand Seed Coats

Next, to help the process along, you can very gently soften the seed coat. I do this by folding a small piece of sandpaper with the right (rough) sides together. Insert one seed at a time and gently sand off a little bit of the coat by rolling everything between your fingers. Easy does it: you don’t want to expose the embryo inside.

Soak in Moist Paper Towel

Once sanded, spread your seeds out on a moist (not dry, not soaking wet) paper towel (or a dish cloth), fold it up, and place everything in a food storage container or plastic food bag.

You may see other methods where the seeds are placed in moist potting mix instead of paper towel. I prefer paper towel because it makes it easy to check on the seeds and see any sign of sprouting without having to dig them out and rinse them off.

Chill in Fridge

Add a tag or write on tape or with waterproof marker noting the seed name (McIntosh, Delicious, Granny Smith…) and the date.

Place in refrigerator and set a reminder on your phone to check on the seeds weekly.

Most fridges run around 35 to 38°F (1.7 to 3.3°C) and apple seeds do best around 40°F (4.4°C). With the insulation provided by the container and paper towel, our seeds in the fridge will do fine.

How long does it take for apple seeds to germinate?

Depending on the variety, they may need 60 to 90 days of moist and cold conditions to germinate. Never allow the paper towel to dry out or become waterlogged: just add moisture as needed.

When they have sprouted, they are ready for sowing.

If they haven’t sprouted after 90 days in the fridge, try setting the container on your countertop at room temperature and give them another few weeks. I’ve had some sprout this late, right when I was going to give up.

Planting Sprouted Apple Seeds

I’ve sprouted my apple seeds, now what?

While you could plant your apple tree seedling right in the garden (in spring or summer), it will be much easier to protect and care for it if you grow it in a container for as long as possible.

Start with a 4 to 6-inch wide (and deep) plastic flower pot with drainage holes and use organic potting mix.

This larger pot (in the photo, below) has seven apple tree seedlings. Once they get a bit bigger (about 6 to 8-inches tall), they should be transplanted into their own containers to avoid getting the roots tangled.

Frequently-Asked Questions

When Will My Apple Tree Produce Fruit?

With optimum growing conditions, it may take 7 to 10 years for the tree to flower and fruit—if it will do this at all. Some apple trees grown from seed will never fruit.

We grow from seed for fun but buy grafted apple trees if we want a tree that will provide a specific type of apple.

The whole topic of pollination is worth researching if you do get this far. If you want a chance of pollination (leading to fruit), there will need to be other apple trees nearby for cross-pollination.

Also, some types of apple tree including Jonagold and Gravenstein have sterile pollen and require pollen from two other trees for fertilization to take place. These are called ‘triploids’. So much to know!

Apple Tree Pollinators
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the most common pollinators for apple trees, along with orchard mason bees (Osmia lignaria), and (in much smaller numbers) bumblebee queens (Bombus genus). You may also notice that each variety of apple tree has its own time to flower from late winter to late spring. Fruit trees that flower at the same time are called ‘pollinator partners’.

Are Apple Seeds Toxic?

Apple seeds do contain cyanogenic glycoside, a cyanide-based compound. But it would take a very large dose to harm someone. That’s why it’s not an issue when we accidentally swallow seeds when eating apples. There are no cases of apple seed poisoning on record.

Can I Grow An Apple Tree Indoors?

It would be fun but no, not under normal household conditions. These are cold-hardy trees needing four seasons to flourish.

More Tutorials

I hope you’ll give this a try and be sure to sign up for the free Empress of Dirt Newsletter for new growing tips and creative garden ideas.

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