The message
from Emery Davis contains these words:

Hello,

We've got a 'grise de canada' (canada grey in english I suppose)
apple tree, that I'm a little undecided as to whether to yank
and replace or stick with a little longer. It's a half high
graft, and the bark around the base of the trunk is gone
except for a perhaps 3 inch strip. Nibbled by rabbits when
young, maybe. In spite of this the trunk and graft look
healthy enough, but the branches, after decent budding and
a few flowers, show only very small leaves that quickly dry
out and fall. They sometimes resprout, but never vigourously;
there is some branch dieback. Further, last year there was
a large growth of oyster-type (looking, anyway, I didn't try
further identification) mushrooms sprouting from the base.

We haven't seen an apple from it in about 3 years, it's been
in about 10.

My tendency is to call for the neighbor's tractor, and pull
it out. (That of course has problems of its own,

From the amount of bark ringing, I think it's had it. I wouldn't leave
it to decay and develop fungi and disease within a small orchard.

As it's only been there 10 years, though, there's no need to get a
tractor in, churning up the place. Cut off the branches, leaving a trunk
tall enough to rock for leverage. Then dig a circle about a foor round
the base, and axe and saw your way through the roots. Using the trunk as
a lever, rock it until it's free. Sounds a lot harder than it is.


Janet