Home Orchards: Why is There No Fruit on My Tree?

How many times have you or someone you know planted a fruit tree in anticipation of harvesting fresh, juicy tree-ripe fruit in your own backyard? Probably more times than you care to count. Home fruit production can be both rewarding and troublesome. Common questions that home gardeners have are why do trees fail to bear fruit and why do trees only bear fruit every other year. The information presented in this fact sheet aims to answer these questions and provides possible solutions to these common problems. 

Excessive Tree Vigor 

Undoubtedly, in home orchards, the number one reason for failure of trees to bear fruit is improper tree vigor. Overvigorous trees expend all their energy in growing wood and do not produce flower buds. Typically, this occurs for two reasons: overfertilization and overpruning. 

If you are overfertilizing, heavy applications of nitrogen will stimulate excessive growth at the expense of flower production. Even if you do not fertilize the trees themselves, if you fertilize the lawn surrounding the trees, rain can move the nitrogen applied to the lawn past the grass roots where the trees can take it up. 

Overpruning apple trees can lead to several issues, including reduced fruit production, water sprouts, bark damage, and disease susceptibility. Removing too much foliage limits photosynthesis, which reduces energy for fruit development. Overpruning often triggers vertical shoots, called water sprouts, that are weak and nonproductive, and excessive thinning can expose inner branches, including the trunk, to sun, causing bark injury. The loss of canopy and large wounds also leave trees at a higher risk of disease and pest-related problems. 

The Solution 

If you are overfertilizing, refrain from applying any extra fertilizer to the lawn within 5 feet of the spread of the tree’s branches. Be careful because underfertilization can also occur. The need for fertilizer in a home orchard should be based on soil test results and annual shoot growth. Bearing fruit trees should average 12 to 18 inches of shoot growth per year, whereas nonbearing young trees should average 18 to 30 inches. If your trees have less growth than this, increase the nitrogen rate by 25% the next spring. If your trees have a greater amount of annual shoot growth, this indicates that you may be overfertilizing. 

If you have too much growth and you are not fertilizing too heavily, you may be overpruning. Fruit trees should be pruned each winter; however, heavy winter pruning will stimulate excessive growth. Apples and pears need to be pruned differently than peaches and other stone fruits. Before pruning your trees, make sure you know where the tree produces flowers and how to prune to encourage flower production. In general, thinning cuts (those that remove an entire branch back to its point of origin) are less stimulating and encourage more flower production. Heading cuts (the removal of a portion of the branch) will stimulate more vegetative growth and delay flowering. Indiscriminate heading cuts will delay flowering and fruiting. In extreme cases, continual heading cuts will totally prevent flowering on apple and pear trees. Heading cuts are the main culprit of excessive growth. Peaches need a combination of heading and thinning because they produce flowers on 1-year-old wood. 

Frost Damage 

The second leading cause of lack of fruit production is frost damage. The flowers of fruit trees are very sensitive to late spring frosts. Temperatures below 29°F will prevent fruit formation. Frost does not have to occur during full bloom for damage to take place. Once the flower buds begin to swell and develop, there is a risk of frost damage. You may not even see the damage because the flowers may open normally but be unable to set fruit. If you suspect that you have had a frost, wait until the following day to examine the flowers. Dark brown to black centers will probably not set fruit that year. 

The Solution 

Plant fruit trees on the most frost-free section of your land. Look for areas that are either close to the house or slightly elevated. Do not plant trees in low areas of the yard. Plant fruits and varieties that are adapted to your area. Apricot trees are usually not very successful in home orchards because they bloom too early and their flowers are killed by spring frosts. Cherries are next to bloom, followed by plums, pears, peaches, and apples. If you have consistent late spring frosts, then plant trees that bloom later. There are also differences within varieties. For example, McIntosh apple trees bloom before Rome Beauty apple trees. Therefore, in questionable areas, plant later-blooming varieties. Your local Penn State Extension office can supply you with information on more frost-hardy fruits and varieties. 

One factor that is often overlooked is the effect of winter temperatures. Extremes in temperature from December to March can also damage flowers. Areas where winter temperatures consistently go below −15°F do not support consistent fruit production, although there are some differences by variety and fruit type. The following is a general order of tree fruit hardiness from most winter hardy to least winter hardy: pears > apples > apricots > tart cherries > sweet cherries > plums > peaches > nectarines. Warm winter temperatures (relative to normal) followed by sudden temperature drops usually kill flowers while they are still dormant. As such, when you are enjoying those few warm days in January or February, followed by a sudden drop to normal or below-normal temperatures, remember that this can result in damage to flowers on fruit trees. When this occurs, the flowers will not open in the spring. The only solution to these problems is to not plant fruit trees where very low, cold winter temperatures are more common. 

Poor Pollination 

The third most common reason for failure to bear fruit is lack of, or poor, pollination. All flowers must be pollinated to form fruit consistently. As an example, the better the pollination in apple and pear trees, the 
larger the fruit. For pollination to be successful, flowers on fruit trees must receive healthy pollen at the proper time. Additionally, the bloom periods of the varieties within an orchard must overlap. Bees are the main method for the transfer of pollen between flowers. Anything that interferes with bee activity, such as insecticides, cold weather, rain, or wind, will reduce pollination. 

Apples and pears must be cross-pollinated. Therefore, you must plant two different varieties if you want to produce fruit. There are also varieties of apples and pears that produce sterile pollen and need to be planted with at least two other varieties. Crabapples and the ornamental Bradford pear can be sources of pollen for apples and pears, respectively. Peaches, nectarines, tart cherries, and most plums are self-fruitful. As such, you only need to plant one variety to produce fruit. Sweet cherries are more difficult, and certain varieties are incompatible with each other. Bing, Lambert, and Napoleon cherries do not pollinate one another, so plant a pollinating variety, such as Black Tartarian, Republican, Van, or Windsor, nearby. In recent years, self-fertile sweet cherry cultivars have been introduced. Choosing one of these new cultivars will eliminate the need to plant an additional variety. Tart cherries, such as Montmorency cherries, will cross-pollinate sweet cherries; however, their bloom periods usually do not overlap. The main agents that transfer pollen are honey bees. If you do not see three to four honey bees per tree visiting the flowers, your fruit set may be less than desired. Avoid the use of insecticides during blooming, which may kill honey bees. 

The Solution 

Check with your local county extension office for a list of compatible fruit varieties for pollination purposes. 

Previous Crop Yield 

The fourth most common reason that fruit trees do not bear fruit is the effect of last year’s crop. Fruit trees form their flowers the previous growing season. Heavy crops the previous year can reduce flower formation the next year by reducing growth or preventing flower formation. For apples and pears, this can be a serious and difficult problem to correct. 

The Solution 

Remove some of the fruit within 2 to 4 weeks after bloom. Thinning later than this will not provide a benefit. For apples and pears, thin the fruit down to one per cluster and allow only fruit-bearing clusters every 6 to 10 inches. Too heavy a crop load on peach and nectarine trees reduces shoot growth, and the result is shorter shoots for next year’s flowers. For peaches and nectarines, thin the fruit so that it is spaced one fruit every 8 to 12 inches along the branch. Other tree fruits do not have to be thinned because their fruit comes off earlier in the growing season. 

Additional Considerations 

Other reasons that fruit trees may fail to bear fruit include tree age and the use of the insecticide carbaryl during bloom. 

Do not expect to produce very much fruit on apple and pear trees until the third to fifth year after planting depending on the rootstock. In fact, it is a good practice to remove any fruit that may form before the tree has gone through three full growing seasons. This will allow the tree to develop the proper number of branches to support future crops. The solution—patience. 

The insecticide carbaryl, if applied to apple and pear trees during bloom or the first month after bloom, will cause the fruit to drop. If a small portion of the fruit drops, then you will have less fruit to thin. However, this practice can remove all the fruit from the tree if carbaryl is applied too frequently or at too high a rate. This problem occurs most frequently when using general purpose spray mixtures. The solution—read the label of all pesticides carefully and avoid the use of carbaryl during this period unless you want to thin the fruit. 

Home fruit production requires patience and attention to detail. Frequently, there is no single reason for a low yield but rather a combination of all the reasons mentioned above. The goal of the home orchardist is to try and control as many of these issues as possible. Through careful monitoring and timely intervention, home orchardists can improve their chances of enjoying a successful and rewarding fruit harvest. 

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Prepared by Rob Crassweller, Ph.D., former professor of horticulture at Penn State University. 

Revised by Andy Faust, Penn State Extension program manager.