neighbors crabapple tree

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I have a nice elderly lady who lives next to me and she has asked me what advice I could give her on improving the health of her crab appple tree. I told her I could do just what I'm doing, putting these pics up for an evaluation to let some real pros give some tips.

It has several broken limbs in the tree, suckers virtually are all over this tree, and frankly the tree looks to be on it's last leg. But what do I know. Any advice ? Thanks in advance.

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second-gen_monkey

she could plant a new tree and not hat-rack it next time.

to me it looks like it is, as you said, "on it's last leg". once you damage a tree that much they are never the same.
all she can do imho is make it LOOK prettier by removing dead and some sucker growth. but i'm a relative newbie so lets see what the others say.

pcarborist

It's definitely dying back, especially the stem looker's right. I would start by deadwooding and fixing the improper pruning cuts. Then carefully remove the turf from around the base of the tree and rejuvenate the soil with good quality compost and then topdress with 3" shredded bark mulch. I would be reluctant removing sucker sprouts. They're doing more good than harm by producing photosynthenate. I wouldn't give up, apples are tough trees.

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parkcityarborist

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Ok, We had a major ice storm here a couple years back, the worst I've seen ever. The damage to trees in this area was depressing at best, lost 2 trees myself. That's whats left of my neighbors apple tree. Her husband planted it and and has much sentimental value.

I'll relay your advice to her, thank you both. Her husband died about a year ago,cancer, and I do what I can to help her out when and if I'm able. She's a very sweet and amazing lady. She was a professional ice skater years ago and the amazing part is she never started skating till she was 55 years old, unbelievable.

Brent Ferris

Crabapples are tough trees. Many in my area are cut back severely like this -- and once you do, the suckers come out every year,even if you trim them all off every year -- suckers sprout everywhere, and the tree keeps on growing.
I like the advice about composting and prob mulch -- but I would check for root strangulation issues first. Hard to tell from photos, but trunk appears to have minimal trunk flare, and if this is the case, the top is having trouble getting nutrients, water from roots. Relieving this problem, can make a dramatic difference to the tree. Imagine if your spouse cooked a fantastic dinner, and you were all keen on eating it, problem is you can't swallow -- . If this is the problem, fix it (super tedious job) then compost and mulch.

I certainly wouldn't give up on it until it was obviously dead.

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Eric Frei

I like the trees in the background, pity that monstrosity is spoiling the view!

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Garry Brockley

you have your work cut out with that one, as previously said it looks like it's in distress, mulch, feed and apply a root treatment then thin out the epicormics, tidy the cuts that aren't to target remove the dead, dieing diseased branches and try to look at the long term picture.
It will never be a pretty tree but if she likes it then give it a go you might learn something in the process.

keep us informed of what you do and take 6 monthly pictures for a couple of years, this will be a good one for your records success or failure.

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Thanks for the advice Galbee. I'll try and stay on top of it. About what percentage of suckers is safe to remove and how soon after root treatment would you do it?

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I've begun to work on this crabapple, thinned out sucker growth, dead wooded made propper cuts as needed and mulched with treebark. She also said the leaves fall off by mid summer......I'm thinking apple scab fungus however I've not addressed the issue as of yet and the tree does have good trunk flair however in the pics I posted it was not visible. She's not to fond of the use of chemicals so is captan a dangerous chemical ? it's what's recomended for apple scab and lime sulper I understand should be applied before folage appears? The tree is already sprouting leaves so I assume it's to late for lime sulfer to be applied. I did not fertilize either for fear of killing it. Any suggestions will be of help. I'll post pictures in a couple of days of what I've done. The tree is not climbable because the limbs are quite brittle. I haven't done much work/desuckering in the upper canopy as a result and figure if the tree survives what I've allready done I'll tackle that next year if that sounds like a plan to you all.

Eric Frei

PDF attached, seems it can be potent stuff.

Serious, apply Cambistat and spray the tree with trichoderma solution.

Attached Files

captangen.pdf (91.1 KB, 18 views)

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Advice taken, thanks once again Ekka