Ken:

Unfortunately this is very normal at least in areas with less than ideal chilling. That includes me in Z7 west Texas. You can try to prune some of it out but that doesn't solve the issue very well. Additional symptoms can include late foliation and late and spread out blooming. Some blossoms here might not open until July.

I just live with it and still get fair to good fruit ripening in October.

That's interesting, I didn't know that. I am in southern california, and my fuji apple tree is behaving very similarly. The lower portion is doing great with many new branches and a few apples already formed, but the top half is just beginning to send out flowers and leaves.

With the warm to down right hot winter we had in South GA I am having the same problem on the Fuji but interesting, not on the Jonagold.

I didn't think we had a chill hour problem. I was told at a nursery that we get plenty for Fuji Apple trees. The branches have leaves at the tip for sure and some lower down. It is the mid section that is bare. I uploaded some photos to help show it. Thanks for the help. Ken

Here is a link that might be useful: Fuji Apple tree photos

Hi all, I'm in RI and I am having the exact problem with my 'Enterprise' apple and even though we had a warm winter, we still had plenty of chill hours. Mrs. G

@ Mrs.G

Does your tree look similar to my tree in the photos?

traildad:

Whether you have enough chilling or not I can tell you that is normal for Fuji. It's called bare wood and they do have issues with some varieties in the PNW with much chilling.

Late leafing and strung out bloom is definitely an issue caused by lack of chilling. In the PNW nearly all apples bloom in two weeks or less. Mine sometimes take a month or two.

@ fruitnut

That is good to know. Thanks ken

My Cortland tree here in Wisconsin is looking the same way -- long scaffold branches, maybe 3 feet long out of the trunk, with little flurries of leaves at the tips and hardly anything else all the way along the branch. I do know that my Cortland is a tip-bearer and I wonder if that has something to do with it?! As if the tree knows that it needs to be pruned for renewal purposes in order to induce new branching and new fruit buds?! So those buds just sit dormant waiting for the opportunity to send out more fruiting wood as soon as my pruners hit that branch. Somehow I don't think trees are that smart... I'm not sure what to make of it. This is the 3rd year in the ground for my Cortland, and it should have maybe 5 apples at the tips this year.

Traildad. Yes my trees look just like your photos!

It could be lack of sun if it isn't chill hours. Keep in mind though, chill hours can be reduced by warm to hot weather between cold spells.

This same thing happened to my Santa Rosa Plum this year. However, i thought the 90 degree heat wave In March messed up the tree. Everything was budding then we had several freezes. We had a mild winter here as well but I would like to think we had the 400 chill hours SR says it needs.

Very normal for a young Fuji in a warm climate; it will eventually grow more spurs on these middle branches and fill those areas.

However Fuji tends to grow more scaffold branches than are healthy for it, so you'll need to prune to keep the tree open and airy; ours is one of the first to get fireblight in the spring.

As your tree adapts to your climate the blossom period will be more compace, but still not like the 2 week blossom in the PNW. It is doing very well in the tropics also, but takes several years to adapt. The first few are horrible and you think that it is very ill-suited for a hot climate, but it comes around and is a dependable bearer.

Applenut