Perhaps disease issue...pictures would help in various stages.

@gardengal48 - actually I was told a few, like these dwarfs, are self polinating. This one definitely produces fruit early on.

@Konard - I'll take a picture of where its at now. basically the leaves start to fall off at the bottom, working its way up to the top eventually. the leaves do look yellow when they fall off.

There is really no such thing as a self fruitful apple. This is really an unfounded gardening/orcharding myth. Any commercial orchardist will tell you that better and more reliable cropping will come from cross pollination. Yes, you may get some fruit development and now again some of these fruit may even reach maturity but it is nothing like what you would realize with a pollination partner nearby.

Since you haven't provided any photos to assess what may be going on, any other problems are just speculation. But I will guarantee you that better fruit production will occur with a second variety of apple.

btw, where are you located? Golden Delicious has requirements that may make it not suitable for all climates and growing conditions.

This is what I found...

Perhaps....

According to Ohio State University, one example is called necrotic leaf blotch, which typically attacks Golden Delicious apples. In this disorder, the leaves typically develop brown spots, then turn yellow. Eventually, the tree may lose all its leaves. Scab is another disease that can yellow apple tree leaves, states North Dakota State University. Insect infestation can also weaken the tree, causing leaves to yellow.

Gardengal is right about apple trees need another apple variety to crosss pollinate. A few apple varieties cannot be used as pollinizers, even.

A sign of a lack of pollination is fruit being formed, growing a bit then, stopping growing, stems turning yellow and fruit falling off, like you have experienced.

Some people claim they only have one apple tree and it produces. That's because there are other apple trees ( including crab apples) within a flying distance of bees and other pollinators to make cross pollination worked.

You can buy another apple a variety and plant it about 15 ft apart from your tree or learn to graft another apple variety on your existing tree.

I don't think so...

>>from June through July it simply dropped 100% of its leaves and fruit<<

This statement alone tells me that you had successfully pollinated flowers and apples growing until you had problems with leaves falling off...and apples.

Can I just add that dwarf trees are no different to any others regarding pollination? It is the variety of apple which determines its pollination behaviour, not its rootstock. A dwarf Golden Delicious behaves like a full sized Golden Delicious.

If the fruit were pollinated, there have to be at least an apple tree ( crab apples and wild apple included) in a couple of miles radius that the OP is not aware of.

100% June( in this case) July drop is not normal. It is likely the tree is suffering so it could not hold on to the fruit and had to get rid of all of them.

wow, so much feedback. thanks!! I need to take a picture today. I live in southeast PA, on the border of 6b-7a.

Ok so there's only one apple tree im aware of in my neighborhood, and its probably 1/3 to 1/2 mile away. With that said my yard does back up to a large wooded area, no idea if there are any apple trees tho.

Good feedback on the pollination. When I first started researching a few years ago I was told my tree doesnt need it. Makes sense what you're saying.

So if I do get fruit every year, right, doesnt that mean something is getting pollinated?

I'll get some pics as well as details on what the leaves look like before, during and after the drop.

thanks so much!!

Is the tree in a pot or the ground?

Don't forget...bees fly up to 5 miles and usually lots of people have apples...especially if local stores sell them... not to mention ornamental apples found everywhere also, hardly ever will there be a pollination issue in apples...unless you live as a hermit in the boonies.

Greetings:

I have grown golden delicious at a commercial orchard when I just got out of college. The first thing I learned about this variety is you MUST thin them to about a foot apart. If not this variety tends to set a lot of fruit that never sizes up and by fall you end up with bushels of little green fruits that are sour and worthless.

Strange as other apples that are not heavily thinned will still produce small but tasty fruit (McIntosh) but not so with yellow delicious. There is a reason why you seldom find small yellow delicious in grocery stores that are bagged and of good quality. They just don't ripen up nicely when they are small and too numerous on the tree.

Not the reason in the case mentioned above but I just wanted to pass this info along to anyone growing golden delicious. Thin heavily!

@Jean, its in the ground.

@Konrad, I had no idea they could fly that far, thought they kept close.

Ok I'm gonna try to upload a bunch of pictures. Can anyone tell from these what the problem might be?

I think the leaves showed signs of two common apple issues, cedar apple rust and apple scab. Both can be sprayed with myclobutanil, the common brand is called Immunox.

The tree looked unhealthy. With such a good size tree, you need to expand the area around the trunk, much larger than the current one, maybe, 4-5 ft in a diameter. Feed the tree with fertilizer like Tree tone. When you mulch, do not mulch against the trunk. Leave space between the trunk and mulch in a circle like a donut shape.

Seems you have too much shade...tree reaching for light. Shaded spots plus dense tree, [too many branches] will have more cedar apple rust. Needs a good pruning, open up for air flow and light.

We had good crops of large Golden delicious on the farm in Switzerland, never needed thinning.

Something else came to mind.....might not be enough with your spray schedule for disease issue to correct in this shady spot...if it was me, getting rid of it and put something else in, perhaps try a Montmorency cherry tree...can take the shade better and less trouble overall.

Definitely spray and fertilize the tree. I wouldn't give up on it. I live in northeast PA, and the best growing apple tree here is a Liberty. They are extremely resistant to the diseases around here, so they grow very healthy, and would provide good cross pollination for the Golden Delicious.

I agree with Konrad that the apple is too close to the woodland edge and is leaning outwards for light. Poor growing conditions would weaken the tree and make it more susceptible to disease. Spraying and fertilising won't help with the light issue.

I also agree with Konrad and Floral. Too close to the edge. The leaning tree tells you that it wants more sun. Trees in partial shade are not productive and often more susceptible to fungal and bacterial diseases.

Do you have red cedar or junipers in the area? If you do, you will have your hands full. Your tree is badly infected. You should look for a more resistant variety such as Liberty, William's Pride, Enterprise, Pristine, etc. if you decide to start a new tree.

Ok thanks for the comments. Yea makes sense to me. When I planted it I picked the best location in my yard with the most sun. Its hard to tell from the picture but the left side (forest) is east and the right side where the sun there's an open path for the sun. But over the last 8 years the trees have grown more as evidenced by the tree reaching for the sun.

Oh well :-(

I definitely won't cut it down b/c it was an anniversary gift from my wife, more for fun but she knew I'd get into it.

So I'll work to keep it going and maybe, with some luck and hard work, I can get fruit out of it someday. I know once or twice in the past it set lots of fruit but they never developed. Best year I picked maybe 25 half size green apples.

So sounds like I should

1) widen the space under the trunk

2) Fertilize

3) Spray with Immunox

I actually pruned it once. Back in January 2016 pruned almost half of the tree to, as you said, open things up. Funny that summer is the first time I experienced this problem.

• If you want to prune, you should prune now. Summer pruning (this is a bit late) usually helps a tree put its energy to create fruit buds for next year. Dormat pruning in the winter or early spring results in a tree being invigorated and push out more growth esp. water sprouts. You should check out Stephen Hayes' apple pruning videos on Youtube.