The Mystery Tree

New houses are kind of like life, in that they are always full of surprises. Sometimes those surprises are good, and sometimes, well, they aren't. Luckily since moving in to the new place we haven't had a ton of the latter aside from some minor discoveries like the emotional garage door that only opens when it wants to, or the light switches to an alternate universe. We've even had a few (potentially) good surprises. Like, for example the mystery tree.

A week ago Him and I were walking around the back yard and talking about our thoughts on the future planning of this huge, and currently somewhat useless, space, when we came to the back corner section of the lot where out of the river rock were growing some unhealthy-looking juniper bushes, a few scraggly upstart saplings, and what looked to be a large round and rather unkempt looking shrub of some sort. Taking a closer look at it, we marveled at the leaves and how 'it looks just like a fruit tree!'. But messier.

A closeup of the very fruit-tree looking leaves

Playing around with a trimmed branch and ArborDay's tree identifier, I did manage to narrow it down to some sort of fruit tree, most likely an apple tree, and probably a dwarf due to the miniscule size of it (at most this thing is 4 feet tall, but with a trunk that is about 5-6" thick, indicating that it has a few years on it). So, being the city girl I am and knowing next to nothing about fruit trees, I started reading up on apple trees. Just shortly before this discovery as we were planning where our garden would go, both Him and I discussed how we might like to have a few fruit trees in our yard, to use some of the ample space in a productive manner, so it was pure luck that we discovered we might just have a head start on the plan with this lone little scrubby tree!

Sadly, I discovered that if it was an apple tree, and it was planted by itself, it might not be able to produce fruit since it would need a cross-pollinator to help it along. Nevertheless, I proceeded to trim back some of the overgrowth and tried to make it look a bit more like a tree. It was growing out of pretty much everywhere, and whoever had planted it had neglected to read up on dwarf fruit trees, because from what I've found, they need to be trained and staked to keep them growing in an organized manner. I did my best, and the result was not half bad.

Unfortunately, I don't have a before picture, but trust me- the change was drastic!

Further examination of the miniscule little tree resulted in the amazing discovery of three fruits that looked very much like tiny apples, two of which had dried up and one which looked healthy but promptly fell off when I touched it to examine it. Go figure. At least my suspicions were (somewhat) confirmed. And if the tree had three fruits, despite how poorly they did, perhaps it was salvageable. There are a few potential reasons why it's not bearing fruit, from what I've read, but only time will tell, and I've summarized them below. Of course, I'm no expert, and I potentially missed some, but these are the ones that I think might be the culprit.

A closeup of what could have been the only viable fruit on the tree (until I touched it and it fell off). The yellow-green color and slight speckling on the top of the fruit indicated, to me at least, that it could be a Golden Delicious or maybe a Jonagold.

Why isn't my apple tree bearing fruit?

1. No cross-pollinator present - Apple trees need other apple trees nearby to pollinate. And they can't be the same variety of apples either, apparently. Furthermore, they need to be somewhat compatible with each other, so not just any old apple tree will do for a companion tree, although I would think that anything would be better than nothing. Before I found the little apples, I was confused how I could find out the variety of apple I had if it wasn't producing fruit, but luckily that problem was solved for me and the little fruit I examined makes me think either Yellow Delicious or Jonagold (see North Caroline State University's Cooperative Extension page on the matter for more details). Of course, some information out there indicates that a crabapple tree would do as well for some cross-pollination. Don't worry, no matter what tree cross-pollinates your tree, the fruit will always be the same as the parent tree. This could very well be our issue, since I haven't seen another apple tree nearby. Of course, if there are a few fruits that means it managed to get a little bit of cross-pollination from some other tree, so that's hopeful.

2. No pollinating agents around - I know we have bees, as I've seen them, but it could be that we just don't have enough. I know that can be an issue in some suburban developments, and I'm not about to introduce a hive to my backyard (yet!), but even if there are cross-pollinator trees nearby, if there aren't enough insects to go back and forth- and grasshoppers probably don't count- then you probably won't get your tree to fruit.

3. Inadequate trimming and training of tree - I'm not even sure this could have a big effect, but the fact is that this poor tree has been badly neglected and is terribly overgrown, which probably results in a lot of branches (and buds) not getting enough sunlight to produce fruit. I'm trying to trim it back, but I'm not sure how much trimming it can take without putting it under a ton of shock.

4. Poor nutrients in the soil/not enough water - This could definitely be a possibility, since our sprinkler system doesn't reach back into this corner so the tree has been surviving off of whatever water it gets from the occasional sparse rain showers. However, the tree seems to be doing well enough here it just isn't producing fruit so I am hoping this isn't the case.

5. Disease or pests- And what can you do about this? The leaves look mostly healthy, although some of the lower ones I trimmed off the other day have some holes in them that look like insect damage. I haven't been able to get in close to the trunk to see if there is an issue with aphids or anything, but the upper branches and leaves look pretty healthy so I'm hoping this isn't also the cause.

And, last but not least (and this is the one I'm pulling for!)
6. Age- After all, it is a small tree. Perhaps it's just not old enough to produce. The NCSU page I linked above mentions that dwarf trees can take 2-4 years to bear fruit, so it's possible that it just isn't old enough yet to produce more than a few apples. This would obviously be the best of the lot, because all we'd have to do was wait patiently for the tree to come of age.