apple trees

aidanki

mother has ~10 apple trees in her garden, ~5 didn't have any fruit this year, nothing, not a single apple. It was the first year they were like that btw they always used to have apples on them

all of the trees are the same age ~37 years old

the ones that didn't have fruit seem to have moss on them

there are a few varities of apple tree in the garden

maybe at 37years old the trees are past it or is it the moss or something else

all trees got sprayed with Captan in the spring

trees could do with a prune, or maybe these ones with the moss are too old and done ?

- anyone got instructions on how to prune apple trees

Oldtree

I dont think the trees are too old, just lack annual pruning, and dont think the moss is doing too much damage but would be easy to rub/pull off. The moss may indicate a damp site.

link to an old post here with college notes on pruning apples

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=79779809&postcount=2

link to a previous thread worth reading

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056853574

dah89

I volunteer in a couple of walled gardens trying to restore them to their former. In one garden the fruit trees were planted in 1955 and in the other the trees where fully grown in the 1960's when there current owners took over and several of the trees were in very poor shape. But they are slowly returning to fully fruiting again. Restoration of old fruit trees is going to take at least 3 years and probably 4, as the other person said if you take away too much all you will do is create none productive watershoots. Winter of the first year take out dead, diseased and damaged wood and the branches growing up the centre of the tree. Idea is to create a goblet shape with the centre open to let in light and air. Don't take off more than 1/4 of the tree in any one year. For the moss, might sound drastic but a power hose does a great job. For the following years thin out the branches and spurs so that light and air can circulate and branches don't hit or cross over. This should promote new growth and vigour in the trees, but you need to keep this controlled so the head of the tree does not become overcrowded again. Hope this helps.

Oldtree

dah89 i love walled gardens. You don't happen to have pictures over the years of the progression of the restoration, esp the apple trees? would be lovely to see.

dah89

These are the 2 sites I volunteer in, there are pictures of the fruit in the back ground. Also their Facebook sites have various pictures as well.
santrycommunitygarden.ie/gallery.html
facebook.com/SantryCommunityGarden
rhsi.ie/gallery/
facebook.com/rhsihome
And because I am a new user i cannot post links but you should be able to navigate from the links above

pwurple

Certainly not too old. When we moved here first there were two old apple trees, huge things. Used to be part of the former convent's orchard, which was sold over 100 yrs ago. They didn't fruit at all the first year we were here.

Gave it a prune over winter and it was much improved this year. Needs more work, loads of cross branches across the center.

There was some moss on it, I left it there and it's fine.