Why is my apple tree not producing fruit?

Apples need a compatible pollination partner flowering at the same time, insects flying at the right moment, and no frost during blossom. Any one of those failing gives a tree covered in blossom and nothing afterwards.

Step by step

1. Establish whether it flowers.A tree that flowers but sets no fruit has a pollination or frost problem. A tree that does not flower has an age, vigour or light problem. Everything follows from this.
2. Check the age and rootstock.A tree on a dwarfing rootstock such as M27 or M9 fruits within two or three years. On a vigorous rootstock such as M25 it may take six to eight, and a seedling apple can take a decade or more.
3. Work out the pollination group.Most apples need pollen from a different compatible variety flowering at the same time. Find out what yours is and whether anything suitable is within a few hundred metres.
4. Check for frost during blossom.A frost while the tree is in flower kills the blossom outright. The petals look normal but the centre goes brown or black. This is very common in a cold late April.
5. Look at the pruning.Most apples fruit on short spurs on wood two years old and older. Cutting back all the previous year's growth every winter removes the wood that would have fruited.
6. Check the feeding.A tree in a fed lawn receives nitrogen, which drives growth and suppresses fruiting. Sulphate of potash in spring encourages the opposite.
7. Assess the light.Apples need a lot of sun. A tree shaded by a building or by other trees that have grown up around it flowers and fruits poorly.
8. Consider biennial bearing.Some varieties crop heavily one year and barely at all the next. Thinning the fruit hard in a heavy year can break the cycle.
9. Check for pests at blossom time.Apple blossom weevil turns unopened buds brown and capped. Look for buds that never open properly in spring.
10. Plant a partner or add a crab apple.A crab apple such as 'Evereste' or 'Golden Hornet' has a long flowering season and pollinates most apple varieties, which makes it a useful single solution.

Tips

• Flowers but no fruit is pollination or frost. No flowers at all is age, nitrogen or shade.
• A crab apple pollinates almost everything and takes up little space.
• Nearby apple trees in neighbouring gardens often provide pollination — check before planting a second tree.

Common mistakes

• Pruning hard every winter to get more fruit — It stimulates vigorous growth and removes the older wood that carries fruiting spurs. A tree that will not fruit is usually better pruned lightly or left for a season.
• Feeding a non-fruiting tree with a general fertiliser — Nitrogen produces leaf and shoot growth at the expense of flower and fruit. Sulphate of potash in spring is the useful feed.

If it doesn't work

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