My apple tree arrived broken in half!

[FloorCandy]

The top stick I put in moist dirt has buds!

 

[Rangergord]

That’s looking great. I would put it in the ground, when you can. The larger and more vigorous the roots, the more quickly a grafted scion will grow and bear fruit. I grow apples in containers and the ground. Trees in the ground always do better even though the soil is dense clay.

 

[FloorCandy]

That’s looking great. I would put it in the ground, when you can. The larger and more vigorous the roots, the more quickly a grafted scion will grow and bear fruit. I grow apples in containers and the ground. Trees in the ground always do better even though the soil is dense clay.

This had no roots, it was the top part of the tree that broke off, but has all the grafts. Should I put it in the ground, or wait until it has roots? The gardening site I had looked at said it takes at least 5 weeks to have roots grow, and then I should plant it in the ground.

 

[FloorCandy]

This had no roots, it was the top part of the tree that broke off, but has all the grafts. Should I put it in the ground, or wait until it has roots? The gardening site I had looked at said it takes at least 5 weeks to have roots grow, and then I should plant it in the ground.

The big part with the roots, I put in a huge pot. It does not have any buds yet, but if it growls I’m going to give it away, or if they both grow, I might try to graft the branches with 5 varieties onto the big plant.

 

[FloorCandy]

I swear since I took a photo earlier today, it has at least 3 new buds, I hope this means it is starting roots.

 

[Rangergord]

Oh that’s the top. Unfortunately the top is very unlikely to sprout roots. That’s why grafting is done instead. A dormant branch cut from a good apple tree is spliced onto a rootstock the bottom half of your tree. Hang on to that. Baby it until it sprouts new buds. Plant it in the ground when you can. The top is what we paid for, hope to see flowers and fruit on but in this case it’s as good as dead. The bottom is the future. Let it send up suckers from the roots and new buds from the trunk. Each sucker, each new branch is a potential place to graft the best apple scions to create a new multi variety tree or more ithan one tree if you wish. Planting a new fruit tree is like getting married. Half of all marriages end in divorce so I had to do it twice to be successful. Same with growing fruit trees. Bad things happen. Learning to graft is something anyone can do but until we try, we think that it will never work for us. Then to our amazement we graft our first branch and it grows. Grafting fruit trees puts you in the drivers seat and you can bring back trees from the dead!

 

[Rangergord]

prune the jagged broken top off the rootstock. In fact cut it where you want tree to sprout it’s first new branches. Somewhere between 18 to 30 inches from soil level. It’s all up to the roots now. The older and larger your apple tree roots are the more quickly any apple grafted onto it will bear fruit. One of my first grafts on a mature tree bore fruit just 12 months later. Fruit in two to three years from grafting is common so contrary to popular belief it does not take very long, compared to planting a new tree.

 

[Justicedog]

I had gotten one of the dwarf 5 in 1 apple trees from Home Depot about 3 years ago. I planted it, the first year, I got one apple. The second year, I didn't get any, if I recall correctly. The third year, my husband chopped down a tree growing in a hedge near my apple tree and it landed on my tree, breaking a bunch of branches. I then "artificially inseminated" the flowers (touching all the flowers, from one to the other) and that year, I had a lot more apples. This year, I didn't get around to doing my artificial pollinating trick (and I was going to bring it back to the single apple tree in the back yard and try to get those flowers pollinated). It looks like I have the most developing apples on my 5 in 1 tree, I'm excited about the prospects.

I bought another 5 in 1 apple tree and put it next to the single apple tree, so hopefully next year I'll get apples on that one. That single apple tree has grown large, but doesn't fruit. It has a buddy apple tree that was planted at the same time, but it never really grew or thrived. I'm planning on seeing if I can dig it up and move it closer to the other tree.

Anyway, the point is that the 5 in 1 trees can work. You may want to shop from a nursery or a local store.

Hope yours recovers.

 

[FloorCandy]

It’s been another week, and I’m shocked at the progress. Everything I ordered is flourishing. The ground cherry bushes, 3 of 4 have leaves all over now, one is still a bare stick, but I see the buds starting, and expect leaves in a day or 2. All of the blueberries are showing new growth in their pots, when they are good and strong I’ll put them in the ground, I have them in those dirt pots so I can plant them without disturbing them.

The apple tree is amazing me every day:

The broken off crown is sprouting leaves like crazy, does this mean it is rooting? I don’t know how to check, A site said pull gently and see if there’s resistance from new roots, I don’t know how hard to pull, I don’t want to kill any of the roots if they’re down there, I should have put it in something transparent.

The rest of it, with the roots, is also sprouting leaves on its 1 branch, I’m starting to be hopeful that I can try to graft branches from the crown part onto the root part, next year, and I’ll have 2 multi variety apple trees.