Nick Powell writes

Hi all,

This is my first post here, so please bear with me.

I’ve recently moved into a property and inherited a horrendously
overgrown garden, I’ve spent much of the past 4 months clearing out
rubble and removing a lot of overgrowth. The apple tree in the garden
doesn’t look to well and I don’t think it’s been looked after for a
number of years. I’ve included some pics:

http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple1.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple2.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple3.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple4.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple5.JPG
http://www.conita.co.uk/Apple6.JPG


“Apple1.jpg” is an overall shot of the tree and as you can see it’s not
been pruned in sometime, there are so many branches that are crossing,
touching and growing into the centre of the tree. Also, to the right
of the tree was a massive buddleia, which I’ve subsequently taken out
as it was forcing the tree to grow crocked to get sunlight and also
resulted in a number of branches on the right hand side growing
inwards. “Apple2.jpg” is a shot from the other direction.

“Apple 4.jpg” and “Apple5.jpg” show a number of brown growths and they
look to be growing where the tree has been previously pruned. Any idea
what these are?

“Apple5.jpg” and “Apple6.jpg” show the state of the bark on the tree,
which seems to be pretty poor.

I’ve no idea how old the tree is, what type of apples it produces or if
it will grow any larger? Although it’s growing a bit lopsided, it would
be quite nice to try and save the tree and give it a decent chance. My
concern is that it may be so bad that it’s a goner and I should look at
replacing it.

Any thoughts/ help would be much appreciated


Thanks
Nick

P.S. I’m a complete beginner in the garden (apart from the basics I’ve
picked up in the past few months)


It's not going to die in the next few years, the question is whether
its cropping is affected. A mature tree will give a lot heavier crop
than a new one, so it's worth not rushing into replacement, particularly
if you like the flavour of the apples being produced.

My immediate thought is that if you have been in the garden for 4
months, then you should know what type of apples it produces, since it
should be producing them!

That said, many apples get into a biennial habit (too heavy a crop one
year exhausts the tree for the next year, then the third year it
produces too heavy a crop again), so it might be in the bad year of a
biennial cycle. If it were mine, I'd give it another year to prove
itself.

Finally, if there are no other apples trees around flowering at the same
time of year, then it may not get pollinated and therefore not produce
apples.



--
Kay