Well... if it were *my* tree. I'd say it was not happy in its current situation and perhaps it would prefer being somewhere else... like on my burn pile. But hey... that's just me. I just figure if I got rid of it and put another in its place, the new tree would likely be productive.
Greg, I have seen old orchardists girdle such trees to good effect, but I'm not sure of the exact method or timing. I think it scares the tree into blooming. Larry McGraw showed us quite a few of his apple trees that he had girdled to force them to bloom, when we toured his place last summer. I wish I had been paying closer attention. I have a tree that I'm getting tired of waiting on also, I will do some asking around and see what can be learned.
I poked around on the web a bit and found this. Ron Smith of North Dakota Extension's reply to a simular question: Something is happening that is causing the trees not to be “motivated†into entering their reproductive cycle. I should say that you also need a little patience. Try the old “traumatic stimulation†trick. Take a straight-edged spade and drive it into the ground in about a half-dozen places just outside the drip line. This will cut some of the roots and may stimulate it into fruit production next year.
Do the branches on your Gravenstein have any fruiting spurs? Are the branches vertically or horizontally situated? You may promote more fruit/blossom production by training your branches to a horizontal position. A good source of information about branch angle is University of Wisconsin Extension Service Publication A1959 "Training and Pruning Apple Trees".
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