Biennial Apple Trees

Biennial Apple Trees

An apple a day is not possible if you only get an apple every other year and that is the fate of some trees. Biennial bearing or a high crop followed by virtually no crop is not the sort of apple production a gardener needs.

Causes of Erratic Fruiting

  • Some types of apple cultivars are more prone than others to fruiting only in alternative years. Beauty of Bath and Laxton’s Superb naturally tend to fruit biennally.
  • Trees can be tipped into biennial mode by frost when no pollination takes place.
  • No crop, high crop, no crop becomes learnt behaviour
  • Heavy crop during an on year depletes the resources and the tree takes a rest or year out
  • Keeping too much old wood reduces new wood and can lead to biennial bearing.
  • Cropping patterns are internally regulated by the tree.

Solutions to Erratic Apple Bearing

  • Select varieties and pollinators with care.
  • Thin out the flower clusters leaving only 10% of the flowers to shock the tree and modify its behaviour. It may take several seasons.
  • Water your trees and look after them during both years.

Other Comments

  • Apple trees  initiate flower buds for next season’s crop in the current season.
  • An alternation of large and small crops can be caused by competition between the current season’s crop and the coming season’s flower buds.
  • Seed-produced hormones from the developing ovules have an inhibitory effect on flower development. Apple may be prone to this floral inhibition.
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