On Nov 27, 4:25 pm, "doug" wrote:

You are going to have to have much courage whether you want to keep the
apple trees or you don't.
I and my son-in-low a few years ago had five trees, ((not apple trees, -
Firs..), close together on a medium sized lawn.
It took us both a long time to get rid of them.
We dropped them to two feet high ...

I suggest that that was at least part of your problem. If you had
dropped them to FIVE feet high with a bow saw, then you would have had
a nice long lever with which to "persuade" the roots to loosen up (so
you could get a saw/loppers/axe in to chop the roots). The trees
would also have been significantly narrower higher up. If they were
too big to chop with a bow saw at 5', then a) they were MUCH bigger
than the apple tree in the OP; b) to my mind they probably merited a
tree surgeon.