No fruit on apple trees, sunflowers

Dear Experts,

I'm currently living in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Really cold. Colder than North Dakota.

Here there is a lot of clay soil.
It gets really hard when it dries!

Morning glories will not grow in the clay, if I don't
turn a big screw through the soil in the spring.

However, Honeyberries (Haskap), Raspberries,
Rhubarb and Sunflowers do grow in the clay.
Not to mention all kinds of weeds.

-----

In 2011, I bought and planted an apple tree.
The tree has grafts from different apple trees, for cross pollination.
I put the bone meal around the roots.


2011, there were a few apples.
2012: a few dozen apples.
2013: there were no flowers, or fruit at all.
2014: some flowers on a few branches only. Now, only one apple growing.
But there are lots of leaves and new growth on the branches.
Currently the tree is about 7 or 8 feet tall.

This past winter (2013-2014) was super cold.

I'm wondering about the lack of fruit, and if the tree is ok.
Any thoughts on based on this info so far?


----

Sunflowers:

Last year I planted a sunflower in the same backyard, that grew to about 9 feet tall!
The root just pushed right through the tough clay soil, and
in the fall, the big root was really tough to pull out.


I've had an idea:
Plant sunflowers 2 to 3 feet from the apple tree trunk.
The sunflower root should break up the soil for the apple tree roots.
In the fall, cut the sunflower down but leave the root in the clay soil.
Eventually, the sunflower root should decompose.
Then, the apple tree roots will now have a "starter hole" in the clay soil.

Has anyone tried this kind of thing?
Any experience? Any thoughts?


Thanks a lot!

To break up clay soil over time adding organic matter, compost, soil amendment and green manure are good things to try.

Organic matter is any sort of plant material, and if it is fairly fine rototill it in, then lay more of it on the surface. As it decomposes it will add very fine organic matter called humus to the soil.

Compost is one form of organic matter. You can 'sheet compost' by simply laying it all over the soil surface, or you can compost it in a bin, then use the finished product.

Soil amendment is anything you add to the soil that is so low in nutrients it is not legally a fertilizer. Includes organic matter of all sorts, and some inorganic things. For example, gypsum is good to add to soils high in sodium.

Green manure is any crop that you grow, then turn under (rototill) without harvesting. Some grasses and many legumes are used. The roots break up the soil while they are growing, and the tilled in materials continue to help the soil as they decompost. I suppose the sunflower root, left in the ground is sort of like this.

These catagories all overlap. Mostly what clay soils lack is lots of organic matter. Add it in any form, and lots of it, and keep adding it over the years.

Thanks. I've thought of changing the soil.

Of course, since the tree has already been planted for over 3 years now,
uprooting the tree to change the soil would probably be pretty dramatic.

Does anyone have any thought on the other questions:
ideas/thoughts on the apple tree's lack of fruit,
and
ideas/thoughts on planting sunflowers beside it.

???

You can sure alter the soil without digging up the apple tree.
You can rototill near the tree and incorporate as much organic matter as you can, and you can mulch often with fairly fine material that will break down quickly and make its way into the soil.

Sunflowers are annuals, so where you plant them you can prepare the soil twice a year. Once in the fall, (leaving the root in place is a good idea) and over the winter the organic matter will start to help, then again in the spring when you are ready to plant.

When you grow the sunflowers keep them well fertilized so that they are adding extra nutrients to the soil, not taking from the soil. Other plants to try: Almost any of the Legumes, such as clover, alfalfa, vetch... find out which grow best in your area (ask the farmers or Department of Agriculture).

Helping clay soil can take many years, it will not happen overnight. But the benefits are worth it.

Hi Again,

This spring the tree is covered with flowers.
A good indication for fruit later on.

Although after the tree was flowering, we then had snow.
So I covered the tree with bedsheets before it got cold that night.

The apple tree is still flowering.
But I do worry if that frost destroyed the potential for fruit.

Hopefully, we'll get lots of fruit this year.


Ciao

BTW, I should add that this past winter was really mild.
And hardly any snow at all.
Relative to the previous winter.

Since I first started the thread, I've spoke to a number of locals;
they did not get their usual fruit yield last year either.

So, my sense is that the trees were affected by the previous bitter winter
and late spring.

Just some thoughts.

Yes, the winter and spring weather will affect the fruiting.

Snow insulates. It just gets cold to a certain point, but if the tree is protected by snow it does not get the wind chill.

Lack of snow but really cold, windy winter is probably the worst.

Milder winter, but still enough chill hours for the fruit you are raising (varies with the species and variety) is probably the easiest for the tree to handle.

Early spring thaw followed by freezing can kill whatever flowers are open. If it is early enough, and the tree has not opened all the flowers then the later ones might bear fruit. Two things are going on: Is the temperature OK for the plant, and is the temperature OK for the pollinating insects. Honeybees do not do much foraging when the temperature is under 50*F. Some other pollinators might be out, but not many.

How is your soil improvement program going?

The tree is from: bylands.com

Honeycrisp
Rescue Applecrab
Sept. Ruby Apple
Heyer #12 - green

Interestingly, most of the branches were on one side.
So the tree listed to that side with all the apples.

If you buy an apple tree with grafts, do check that the branches
are evenly spaced around the tree

They Honeycrisp apples are fantastic!
Very similar in texture and size to medium sized Delicious apples.
Slightly more tart.

With the exception of 'Honeycrisp', which I'd still classify as experimental for the prairies, the varieties should do very well for you (old, hardy types), barring late frosts or bad weather during flowering or early fruit formation or leading to poor pollination. Some people claim some sort of cyclicity to fruit tree production, e.g. a good crop every so-many years - I suspect such observations could likely be related to weather during budding out and flowering.

Edit: Yes, 'Honeycrisp' certainly is delicious - one of my favourites (though only store-bought!) I would guess the fact that your tree is grafted with various scions of different varieties would mean each has just a restricted number of branches? I would imagine this would create a bit more vulnerability for any particular variety (as opposed to having a tree of a certain variety)? What rootstock are they on?


This message was edited May 23, 2015 12:05 PM

I'm sure the base tree is the Honeycrisp.
That's seems to be the apple that we harvested most the second year.

It's hard to say because every label is near the bottom branches.
As opposed to on individual branches.

Re: How is your soil improvement program going?

I haven't planted any sunflowers around the apple tree.

However, I am doing an experiment this year.

I've planted sunflowers where I've seen the tips of anthills
coming out of the ground in other years.

What will the result be???

I think it would be really strange if the rootstalk was the "if-iest" (i.e. most untested, least hardy) of all the scions. In any case, it doesn't sound as if winterkill has been any problem, so that's great. I was just curious to know.