I've asked before about my grafts that don't flower. Today, I may have
found the reason. Could it be that ants are eating all the flowering
buds?
I have a crab apple on which I've grafted 5 domestic apples. Most of
the crab is still there, and appears to be healthy. It breaks dormancy
a week or two before the grafts in the spring, and it goes dormant a
few weeks before the grafts in the fall. Mostly, the grafts look
healthy. They are 4-5 years old, and some of them are now quite large,
with branches wider than my thumb. But they never bloom.
Today, I was examining the tree. The crab is covered with tight pink
clusters of flowerbuds emerging form the ring of baby leaves. The
grafts have about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of green tip showing. As I often
see, there's some damage to the grafted buds, tissue is brown and
misshapen. In the past I had assumed it was due to some fungus. Maybe
it is, but today, I noticed little brown ants INSIDE the damaged area
on one bud. It looked like it might have had flower-bud tissue that
was being destroyed, although it's hard to tell. There were ants all
over the grafted parts of the tree - maybe one every linear foot, with
a higher concentration in the buds. AND, this might be a clincher, the
ants and the damage were selectively in the "fat" buds, not the flat
buds on the side of the branches that are obviously vegetative only.
Has anyone seen anything like this before? Any suggestions? Do you
think it's ants?