'Tis a tale of woe.
I have five oblique cordoned apple trees that are now three years old. Last year, several of them bloomed, but I guess they did not get pollinated because no apples appeared.
Then I built a greenhouse overtop of my babies, to protect them from fungal diseases (I live in Vancouver, BC, in the west west coast)
This year, none of my older trees bloomed at all.
But Karmin de Sonneville and Margil, two new trees I got last fall, did bloom. I was worried about pollination in the greenhouse so I tried to hand pollinate them with a Q-tip. But I think it failed, as all the blooms dried up and fell off.
My questions are:
1) Why didn't the older trees bloom? They are all varieties that are supposed to bear annually.
2) Any idea why pollination may have failed with the trees that did bloom?
Thanks kindly, wise apple sages.
Your sad apple non-producer up north.
Why didn't the older trees bloom? They are all varieties that are supposed to bear annually.
Sometimes apple trees start producing fruit every other year. They produce too many fruits one year, then next to nothing the next, then too many fruits the next, etc. This could be why the older ones did not have significant bloom this year. Did they have a large crop load summer of 2008?
This can be combatted next year by thinning out fruit before June. Take 90% of the fruit off. That is what I do to my Mac tree and it bears every year. Without the thinning it rapidly gets into bearing only in alternate years.
Any idea why pollination may have failed with the trees that did bloom?
This link identifies Karmijn as a triploid, and they are pretty much useless for pollinating anything else, so need outside pollen.
This link says Margil pollinates best with other apples rated as 3's. (far right column) Maybe you are running into those limitations?
Thanks very much for the thoughts, plum fun.
Nope, the older apple trees didn't bear any fruit last year. A couple of the trees had blossoms last year, but I guess they didn't get pollinated so there were no apples. So why they didn't bloom this year is still a mystery.
The info about Karmijn is super helpful. The Karmijn and Margil were the only trees I had that bloomed this year so I tried to pollinate them with each other. At least I know now why that didn't work! Sigh. This apple thing is awfully complicated ... 
D.
The greenhouse was built in March, and we had a lot of snow this winter, so hopefully they got their chilling in before then. The greenhouse isn't heated either, so hopefully it won't affect future chilling sessions. But thanks very much for throwing out the ideas, as I am about to give up on the damn apples!
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