How much pruning are they doing?

It seems logical that these two different and somewhat dependable trees not blooming might be related. You mention that you had a professional service prune and fertilize the trees. This is a speculation, but just like pruning an early spring flowering shrub too late in the season can prevent bloom the following year (not enough time to regenerate "bloom buds"), if your trees were pruned heavily, removing almost all the buds, and too late in the season this might have produced the same result...

My tree service only trims to shape. The serviceberry hasn't need touched. And the crabapple is so perfect they just removed a half dozen tiny crossing branches. I bought a quite mature crabapple and it's apparent that the grower had been doing major shaping all along. So while pruning of these two species would certainly be suspicious, one didn't get pruned and I can't believe the minimalist approach the crabapple got would have kept it from blooming (and the tree company doesn't think that's it either).

Other ideas?!!

sever winter... or drought last summer ...

either of which destroyed the buds ...

flower productions ebbs and flows over the years ..

ken

Gee, neither the winter nor the summer seemed extreme, and I water the trees every week it doesn't rain. But I'll take your word for it.

Well, I had a similar problem with alternate year blooming. It happened on my 'Sugartyme' crabapple but not on another crabapple.

From my notes:

planted 6/95.
96 no blooms.
97 full bloom
98 - 10-20% bloom.
99 full bloom.
00 5 blooms.
01 full bloom.
02 no bloom.
03 full bloom.
04 a bit.
05 full bloom.
06 ? (no entry)
07 full bloom

That's my last entry. I guess I got bored with this recordkeeping. I see lots of buds now. I think it bloomed last year but who knows.

My theory after some research (GW?) was that it took 2 years for this tree to gather up the energy needed to make flower buds. I increased fertilization and added compost to no avail.

Any pruning I have done was always to take an entire branch back to its end. I would not tip the branches.

Your diarying skills are impressive! That's very interesting.

I just called my tree service to see what they're using as fertilizer and it's 30/10/7. (The service is Davey's.) Might that be too much nitrogen? My viburnums and fothergillas, which get the same thing, are all blooming madly away, and my enkianthuses have very heavy bud set.

Soil sampling and testing is used to get an idea what the mineral situation may be on a particular plot.

I did do soil testing through Penn State. The side of the lot that those trees are on was fine. The other side was low in phosphate and I've been adding rock phosphate to that. That section is in a lot of shade, and I've planted shade perennials there. I get some late-season browning, but they seem to be doing pretty well. I'll retest that section to see how my amendments are doing. But I really didn't need to do anything where those two trees are.

That section is in a lot of shade,

ding ding ding ding...

crabapple needs full sun. Serviceberry should be ok in part-sun. My serviceberry took a few years to bloom.

30-10-7?!?!?!?! Yikes!!!!!!! That's grass fertilizer. WAAAAAY too much N. Plus, have you even done a soil test to determine if they need fertilization at all? It really isn't necessary for many trees. It's not like they're fast growing annuals.

Whatever you decide about the blooming issue, a "professional" putting that down on trees is whacked IMO.

The crabapple and the serviceberry ARE in full sun. It's the other side of the lot, the side that tested low for phosphorus and in which I've planted just shade perennials, that's in shade. Sorry if that was unclear.

Sun is not an issue here. They're in good shape. And they both bloomed gloriously last year.

Davey's Trees uses a slow release fertilizer (inserted in the soil very deeply with a probe) and they assure me the trees get only very gradual access to all that nitrogen. They're one of the two well-regarded arborists around here, and I've used them for 13 years without any problems.

Yes, I did do soil testing (see a couple of messages above). The side of the lot that those trees are on was fine and needed no special amending.

If the soil tested fine in the area around the trees then why fertilize.

I have both a crabapple and serviceberry in the lawn. I don't fertilize either the trees or the lawn and they have never missed a year, though some are better than others.

I don't think a tree not blooming in the first or second year after transplant is highly unusual. I planted some Apricots several years back. Bloomed the first, then grew extremely vigorously and sparsely bloomed, if at all, the next two. Since then they have been spectacular.

Stop paying Davey (and I have a buddy that used to work for them).

You don't need a service to come out and fertilize. They find homeowners who don't know better to pad their bottom line. You don't need to hire anyone to come out and prune for several years.

The issue is either they pruned off second-year wood thus no blooms, too much N, or the weather. Regardless, you don't need anyone coming out and fert'g your trees. And I'm an arborist.

Dan

I actually was doing a search for this same question on my crabapple tree. We purchased a second place as a get-away in the woods but love it so much we are here as much as possbile. Last year my crabapple blossomed beautifully and I had the largest, most abundant crop of crabapples. This year not a single blossom. The year before last (2007) I did not get any fruit but we had a late freeze which I thought might have killed the flowers. Since we are not here all of the time it is a little bit hard to track. I do keep a journal of my plants, shrubs and trees but since it is only as up to date as the times that I am here, it is not quite as dependable as wendyb.
However, what I do have, when I finally thought of going back the 6 years we have owned the place is that it "seems like" it blooms and produces fruit every other year. This tree was fully mature when we moved in. It is otherwise healthy and growing well. So, my assumption is that this is normal for whatever type of crabapple that I have. Has anyone else seen this type of behavior in crabapples?