cliff_the_gardener wrote:
Very sad to loose an apple tree. You are right, hawthorne or for that
matter most of the roseaceae family, seem to be a problem, which is a
shame.

Would you beleive, I didn't have not only 2 hawthorns, but a
magnificent floribonda, white pompoms, scented like heaven and the
profusion this year was amazing. I said was, I severely reduced it down
on Sunday. I'm having a 'spring cleaning' .... here are the roses at
the back, on the left there's the apple, but you can't see it on this.

http://cjoint.com/?jmqhMTTdAx

I have a tree - which too 5 years to bear fruit to identify what it
was, has suffered from scab, canker, codling and tortrix moth. Despite
my best efforts this year it produced 8 edible fruits. Turns out it is
Laxtons Fortune, so unfortunately I will be cutting it back and
grafting a something else on to the trunk.

I'm not sure what my apple tree is. It's pathetic but I got it on a
whim of my youngest son, who said that the apples on the picture looked
like the one of the wicked witch in Snow White, bright red and huge.

Here the apple, if you perhaps can identify it? I've never had huge
bright red apples on it, perhaps one a couple of years ago ....

http://cjoint.com/?jmqmy4TbmE

But grafting .... I never thought of this! Can I graft on say a trunk
of about 10cm circumference?

It might be worth working your way throuogh Martin Crawford's book -
Directory of Apple Cultivars. In there he details over 3000 cultivars,
and has a column for Codling moth indicating wheather the cultivar is
susceptible or resistance to Codling moth.
There is another moth that affects apples Tortrix moth, this one can be
identified because the leaf is folded over the hole in the apple.
Again can be controlled via pheromone traps.

I haven' t had much time to look into it all, I'm only thinking of the
pergola I'm going to construct instead of the apple tree - but if I can
save that tree, it would be nice indeed.