No blooms on apple or plum this year

I have a gala & a Fuji apple tree and a Methley plum. Last year (2009) they all cleverly blossomed a week before the last freeze. This year (2010) they have not blossomed at all. I am really tired of messing with these trees. Am I just in the wrong weather zone (supposedly 7B) or is there something I need to do? Thank goodness, my figs and blueberries are doing fine.

Thank you.

Paul

Your zone should be cold enough for apples and definitely appropriate for Asian plums.

If they failed to fruit last year, they should have blossomed heavily this time. The plum may need a pollinizer, but that shouldn't stop it blooming.

Have you or someone else pruned them? Sometimes that causes the flowerbuds to be pruned off.

Methley plum is described as a self-fruitful plum meaning that it will produce plum without having to have a pollinator nearby. It needs only 450 chill hours. Did you notice any flower buds swelling? It could be that it started to come out of dormancy way too soon, given that this winter seemed to go on forever, and freezing weather killed the buds before they opened. Gala apples need about 500 chill hours and Fuji needs about 350. If the chill hour requirements are met way too early, the tree will start to break dormancy well before winter is over leading to the death of either blooms and/or tiny fruit.

Thank you all. BettyDee, I think you may have the answer. We had a not too cold but long lasting Winter here. I realized that my serviceberry also failed to bloom this year.

alot of the apples here didnt bloom either. its this wacky weather we keep having. dogwood didnt bloom either .

my peach tree was covered in peaches cold spell come through last week i mean down in 30 or less with wind blowing. my peaches fell off the tree. was so upset too

just not you

Thank you all- I had forgotten to mention that the dogwoods bloom was almost non-existant too. Oh well, maybe next year...sigh.

I am just starting to see little bitty figs on a couple of trees so maybe they will feed fruit to me and my dog this summer. Blueberries are looking fine
Paul

We had a very late snow, after what my apple & plum trees thought was spring and put on a beautiful display of blossoms. After the snow, though, all the blossoms fell off and I figured this would be just another fruitless year -- I planted these dwarf trees, 5 apple & 2 plum, 6 or 7 years ago and have never gotten fruit due to the unpredictable weather, but they have bloomed every year. No apricots or bush cherries, either.

BUT! Two of my granddaughters were visiting me over the weekend and one came in an said, do you know you have two little apples on one of your apple trees? I went out and sure enough, two little apples! I was thrilled!

This will be my first year for apples! Hey, maybe there are some teeny little plums hiding on one of the plum trees?

imzadi,
I looked up Jackson, SC on the Google map - I had first assumed it was where Ft. Jackson is. When I saw Jackson is near Augusta, I thought of fig trees in Augusta - when I was little (1944) we used to climb the neighbor's fence and then climb up into her fig tree to eat the figs! (at least until she came running out of her kitchen yelling at us). I have never seen a large fig TREE since although someone told me that that in Vicksburg, MS (on the banks of the Miss. River) there were some huge ones.

Figs are my favorite - I have 6 or 8 different kinds and some are doing ok this year. I just ate the one in the picture - delicious!

Paul

pb, back in the late 40's, one of our neighbors about a block away had a fig tree that was neglected (unfenced, too), but full of figs every summer. This was in Phoenix, Arizona, when I was about 9 or 10. I had never tasted a fig and was not sure they were even good to eat, but the June Bugs loved them! We kids used to climb the fig tree and pick -- not figs -- but June Bugs! We'd take them home and play with them.

Now I k now how yummy they are. I have a dwarf fig tree in my greenhouse, and it has a dozen or so figs on it. I can hardly wait until they get ripe!

No June Bugs up here.in northern Arizona. 8^)