Saving an Apple tree

[CathyLee]

In the September hurricane here in NS, I had a apple tree blow over, the yellow august type, my favorite.

It was a mature tree, 15 ft + with the help of the farm tractor we stood it back up and braced it with 3 fence posts. The winter winds knocked it back down.

My husband is going to saw it down, but it has buds coming on it .

Is there a way we can cut it and have it send out shoots?

[Sherwin Dubren]

Hi CathyLee, The best solution is to get an apple rootstock and graft some of your 'yellow august' onto it. Sounds like it may have been semi-dwarf rootstock, so get a rootstock to match that height, unless you want to change the size of the resulting tree. You want to cut the 'yellow august' branches as soon as possible, taking new growth at the ends of the branches with at least two or three buds. Put it in the cooler of your refrigerator until you can do the grafting. Check the web for information on how to do grafting. It's not very complicated, but requires a little practice to get the techniques down pat.

Sherw>

[nswong]

Hi CathyLee,

1. I will saw off those injure roots up to non injure part, to reduce expose injure surface that will attack by plant disease.

2a. I will topping(saw off part of main trunk) to the first main branch, and heading(saw off part of branch) the first main branch to the first side branch. 2b. Or heading all main branches to their first side branch. Topping will kill the tree sometime, heading are safter.

1. Stood it back up with some support.

Due to those fruit trees planted by my father are too tall to be manageable, and getting old to produce fruit, I do topping to all of them. All of them are survived and now produce a lot better fruits both in quality and quantity.

BTW: Don't use chain saw, the cutting of chain saw are too rough.

Sorry for my bad English.

Regards, Wong

[Ian Cox]

Please don't be sorry, your English is *far* better than my Chinese!