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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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