[missmoneypenny]

My little apple tree is bearing the most apples it ever has in its 5 year life. No doubt a big June drop is on the way, but I’m wondering how much and how often to water to maximise the crop. Any advice?

[coldandwindy]

Personally i would never water a 5 year old tree. However hard you tried you'd always get most of the water too much on the surface, causing the roots to be more superficial & weakening it long term.
(Mind you, I live somewhere that measures its rainfall in feet not inches!)
Is it somewhere you could mulch round it?

[missmoneypenny]

Thank you coldandwindy, I hadn’t thought of that, it is very dry here, hasn’t rained for weeks and no rain forecast. Whats pre there’s a brisk wind most days, which is quite drying.
The old guy at the plot who taught me everything was a big fan of watering when any fruiting plant is in bud, hence I thought it was a good idea.

[Ivor Backache]

There is an apple problem called bitter pit The skin of the fruit become pitted and tastes sour. Caused by a shortage of calcium, but there is plenty of calcium in the ground but the roots have not enough water to take it in. I learnt all about this the hard way and lost a lot of fruit. The ground is now very dry and the water butts are empty and so I empty the bath water around the apple trees. A bucket full each week for each tree. This year's crop is enormous and the tree cannot take the weight and already I am thinning the crop to avoid broken branches in the future.

[missmoneypenny]

Thanks Ivor. Went to the plot today and looking at the fruit about 1 in 5 had a worm in it so I removed all of those. I will continue to water every couple of weeks as down here there’s been no rain for weeks and none forecast.