My crab apple making fruit?

[Geno C]

Can someone verify if this is fruit I am seeing... This was one of my brandnew trees I ordered, it had no growth when I got it this was all from the last few weeks. But it looks like its starting to produce fruit. I could be seeing things.

[phade]

FLowering...I'm always a fan of eliminating any fruit on young trees to encourage the tree to focus on other areas of growth.

[SplitG2]

looks like it.  I agree with phade.  Take the blooms off.

[Geno C]

pull them off your saying? it was a 6 footer, id assume its a few years old already... 

 

this thing is growing like crazy, it came in as one long branch and now its leafing out and making branches everywhere. but thats a good point tho. i figured it was fruit but im like really? first year after planting the thing lol

[phade]

I don't know why you would want the fruit on your trees in this situation. You just ordered them, but your call.

[Geno C]

i never said i wanted them... i said it was cool that the tree was even making fruit the first year. i said you made a good point. 

 

i will prob take them off.

[phade]

It's not cool - it's a something you need to correct. You don't want the fruit that early in the tree's lifespan. Let the tree focus on placing energy into where it NEEDS it. Fruit bearing trees and plants oftentimes will flower/bloom and try to produce fruit before they should. Cool would be the tree deciding not to flower at all right now.

[Five Seasons]

It's not cool - it's a something you need to correct. You don't want the fruit that early in the tree's lifespan. Let the tree focus on placing energy into where it NEEDS it. Fruit bearing trees and plants oftentimes will flower/bloom and try to produce fruit before they should. Cool would be the tree deciding not to flower at all right now.

 

i agree with all this logic, but part of me thinks if the tree is doing what it's doing leave it alone. Most plants have been around a lot longer than us, so they must know what's best for themselves and be doing something right. I realize pruning and what not is all very important and I'm by no means an expert. Just seems that sometimes we should let them do what they want. idk...

[phade]

i agree with all this logic, but part of me thinks if the tree is doing what it's doing leave it alone. Most plants have been around a lot longer than us, so they must know what's best for themselves and be doing something right. I realize pruning and what not is all very important and I'm by no means an expert. Just seems that sometimes we should let them do what they want. idk...

 

Logic? The tree's goal is to produce seed. Our goal is to have it produce fruit year and year for many years. Big difference. I bought the tree, therefore I want it to do what I want it to do. Not seed prematurely and die out because of stress, lack of a root system or leaf structure, etc.

 

The tree's goal isn't to live many long years...it's simply to produce seed.

 

There's also no logic in letting a treee do what it "wants" when people have grafted the freaking thing to a rootstock. Hey, create Frankenstein and let him do what he wants.

[Five Seasons]

Hey, create Frankenstein and let him do what he wants.

 

those are the best movies.

[phade]

those are the best movies.

No doubt...I have a crabapple in my back yard that is probably as old as I am and I make one or two hacks at that thing every winter. I curse it everytime I send a crabapple out of the JD....I hit the dog once with one and he didn't come near me for a month. I'm just waiting to break a window. I pick them up all the time, but still one or two get by me.

[Five Seasons]

we used to have crab apple fights as kids. you could really whiz those things and they left some nice welts.

[First-light]

OT but I moved an apple tree last Sept. it went into shock and I thought it died. Went up to camp last weekend and had new growth all over it. I'm a happy camper!

[Geno C]

It is cool... Very cool actually. Like stated the tree was not some 2-3 foot it was a 6-7 foot tree. Mature enough to bear fruit in my eyes. If you want to get technical phade...

[phade]

It is cool... Very cool actually. Like stated the tree was not some 2-3 foot it was a 6-7 foot tree. Mature enough to bear fruit in my eyes. If you want to get technical phade...

A 6-7 foot tree on a common semi dwarf rootstock is nothing... esp in your situation. You should not be letting it set fruit. Bottom line.

Edited May 10, 2013 by phade

[robw]

this is a good summary, may help you decide.

 

http://www.orangepippintrees.com/articles/fruit-tree-age-when-fruiting-begins

 

I've always thought tree care, i.e. fertilizer, water, sunlight, etc was the most important piece of making sure the tree grows well, and haven't worried about plucking blossoms.  Only failures I've had came from lack of water or people being stupid and running it over with a 4-wheeler.

 

I've planted apples (regular varieties, not crabapples), pears, peaches (for me, not the deer) and black oak

[Doewhacker]

Thats some serious tree growing tough talk.

[wooly]

Thats some serious tree growing tough talk.

Cut the S.O.B. down and tear off the leaves. Cover it in saran wrap keeping the humidity level to 83.2% for 36 days in direct sunlight.

Apple trees should not produce fruit untill they are 4 1/8 years old at the very least, and must have maximum bark crust of 11cm for optimal cider and pie fillings.

If you're growing them for the deer, things get a little more technical. You'll need a bee colony with two queens to cross polinate between two pears and a cherry to prevent inbreeding and a breakdown in carbon elements throughout the trees 'family tree' DNA lineage. Deer will crap out a stronger strain of seed if the apples are round-up ready and fertilized at least once every blue moon..... and remember, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch,lol

 

Geno- I hope your tree grows to be a real producer! Good luck with her!

Edited May 10, 2013 by wooly

[G-Man]

the tree is responding to shock, i assume you bought it bare root, or in a pot. phade is right take off the blossoms let it put energy into roots leaves. the tree is thinking its dying and want to reprodue before it does. if you let it put all its energy into fruit it might. its the whole purpose of pruning an older tree make it think is dying although its to big to do so and it makes more fruit!

[Doewhacker]

Wooly gets post of the week for that one..hahahahaha

[phade]

But it's cool, lol.

 

It really will do benefit to just get that tree focused on growth and not reproduction.

Edited May 10, 2013 by phade

[Pav2704]

Cut the S.O.B. down and tear off the leaves. Cover it in saran wrap keeping the humidity level to 83.2% for 36 days in direct sunlight.

Apple trees should not produce fruit untill they are 4 1/8 years old at the very least, and must have maximum bark crust of 11cm for optimal cider and pie fillings.

If you're growing them for the deer, things get a little more technical. You'll need a bee colony with two queens to cross polinate between two pears and a cherry to prevent inbreeding and a breakdown in carbon elements throughout the trees 'family tree' DNA lineage. Deer will crap out a stronger strain of seed if the apples are round-up ready and fertilized at least once every blue moon..... and remember, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the whole bunch,lol

 

Geno- I hope your tree grows to be a real producer! Good luck with her!

Wooly, I hope you got your information from a credited source!!!  lol

[wooly]

Wooly, I hope you got your information from a credited source!!!  lol

I Googled it on my Macintosh... does that count,lol

[Five Seasons]

while again i recommend doing the best you can in whatever you do, i'm not sure you have to take it to that level wooly! haha.

[Geno C]

But it's cool, lol.

It really will do benefit to just get that tree focused on growth and not reproduction.

VERY cool

I agreed with you from your first post so stop being like me tree (crabby) lol

I do fig cutting and plantings every year and one thing I have noticed since day one was that I have had cuttings produce fruit as soon as the first summer, during the second hit. With trees that produce fruit first and second year I have noticed that when I pulled the fruit off when it started YES the tree focused more on growth absolutely. I also noticed when that same tree produced fruit the second season none of the fruit was close to ready for eating. I have noted when I left the fruit to grow on some of the cuttings and let them die out at the end of the season then pick them off, I noticed that same tree made fruit the following year that was ready to eat. Almost like the tree put energy in both places. I thought that since the tree made edible bearing fruit the next year it kind of learned to put he energy into the fruit versus the tree that I picked early, it was like the tree was still learning how to put the energy to the fruit so the first 2 years for production was a bust. Just things that I picked up on with my figs which are a fruit tree also. The tree won't die if the apples remain on the branch intact what I am going to do is leave them on let it grow and I will give a follow up on it and see how it is doing. I would expect it to make fruit and continue to grow strong as planned. If things don't work out, I'm one tree down maybe. It's a learning curve for me so I would like to see what happens if I do the opposite of what a few say I should do. This way I know, it's not the end of the world for me, it's one tree. I would like to see what happens... But thanks for the advise, I already knew about picking the fruit off but since I never had a crab apple I just wanted to see if that was indeed fruit in which case I was almost 100% sure it was.