Apple Tree / Crabapple Tree?

jaykup

I'm pretty new to all this. We've had this apple tree in our back yard for many years, but never took care of it.

Every year it produces hundreds of golfball sized apples, which have black spots on them (insect holes maybe?), and I always assumed it was a crabapple tree, but someone told me its a regular apple tree thats sick so the apples aren't full sized...

I remember eating them as a kid, and while sour, they weren't bad.

The flower petals on the tree just finished falling off.

Anyway I'd like to start taking care of it this year (spraying with anti fungal and insecticide), and I'd like to know what kind of tree it is...

http://jaykup dot imgur dot com/apple_tree

High res pictures are in the URL above, replace the "dot" with an actual .

It won't let me post external links

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Eric Frei

I'm no apple tree expert but the tree doesn't appear diseased.

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jaykup

any ideas what type of apple tree it is?

Darrell Mcleod

looks to me it could do with a really good prune and prior to and when fruiting make sure it does not dry out and gets plenty to drink - lots of fruit need water to fill them up

jaykup

Yeah, I spent a few hours today removing as many small branches as I could. Basically anything dead, or small without buds on it was removed. I think I'm going to have to trim a few branches on the maple tree next to it, its starting to cover some areas of the apple tree...

Anyway, I found about 10 of these nests! (see below) They were full of small caterpillars/silkworms or something of the like. Probably a handful in each. A few were just starting to crawl out onto the branches. I cut off the branches they were on and burned them.

I'm gonna spray it tomorrow with insecticide & anti-fungal, maybe I'll get something useful out of it yet! It will be easier to identify once the apples start coming out I think.

I never thought about watering it, I'll give it a try.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

I've seen some old Hertitage apple varieties that have apples naturally the size you describe, perhaps it might be an heirloom variety of some sort.

Just thinking out loud.

daygan

While not a professional myself, here's what I found on ehow:

... So you might want to check out the color of the fruit. Also, I read somewhere that crabapples often stay hanging on the tree even through the winter. Is this the case with your tree?

Eden Keeper

An heirloom apple seems probable; some of these have typically have black spots that are freckle sized (rather than pinhole sized) that can be washed off since this is a mold that feeds on the sugar in droplets of sap. The small fruit may be partially due to the large number mentioned. Ideally there is 1 apple per 6"-8" of branch so they may need to be thinned (I'm even negligent at doing this). The small twigs (generally found on the more horizontal branches) known as spurs have the apples, but they may only produce in alternate years thus the worst case would be if those that were cut off are the ones that would bear next year while at best the result may be the same as thinning. Either way on such a mature tree most of the fruit will be on the outer ends of the branches where there is more sunlight so the effect on apple production of pruning small fruitless twigs near the trunk is minimal. The limbs that need to be pruned include those that are broken or crossing, and any that are rapidly growing vertically such as suckers and/or water sprouts since these later ones don't produce fruit and instead sap energy that would otherwise result in larger apples.

Brent Ferris

Good advice Eden Keeper!


The caterpillars are likely Eastern Tent Caterpillars - removing and burning the nests works well. If you are still getting frosty nights, open up the tents at night and let the frost kill the caterpillars. You definitely want to control them before they reach their 3rd instar, after that, they are large enough to leave the tent, and can easily strip the host tree within a few days, and then move on to other trees, At the ends of branches, you may see a small band encircling the twig about 1/2 inch long, with what look like broken bubbles, THey are the eggs the caterpillars hatched from,. Once you find one, you can look for others but they are hard to spot, since they are a similar colour to the twig. If you find any that have not hatched, cut them off and burn them as well.

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