Any Gardeners In Here? Need Some Advice

[meths]

I moved house a couple of years ago and have an apple tree in the back garden.

It's now fallen over and looks to have snapped under it's own weight at the bottom. It wasn't particularly deep rooted from what I can see.

I'd like to try and take cuttings from it before it dies off and regrow a new tree but don't know where to start. The internet gives a lot advice but the trees in the examples look very different and I don't want to start hacking away at this and hoping for the best.

Does anyone here know what they're doing with this sort of thing?

If I could post a few pictures and someone could tell me the best bits to take the cuttings from it'd be a big help.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Trees from cuttings are normally via grafting to a root stock.
Not something to be messed with without some practice.

Is the tree dead?

What sort of size are we talking as well.

 

[PlacidCasual]

You will be able to take cuttings if it is still alive but the risk is they will be enormous when fully grown. The purpose of grafting on the root stock is to control the tree size. An un-grafted cutting will give you the apple you want but it might be pot luck as to how large it is.

 

[meths]

Trees from cuttings are normally via grafting to a root stock.
Not something to be messed with without some practice.

Is the tree dead?

What sort of size are we talking as well.

No, it's not dead yet and it's about 8ft high leaning against the fence.

Here's where is snapped. Looks a bit mouldy to my untrained eye:

here's the bit that came off:

Here's one of the sections that are still standing, albeit leaning into the bush below:

Here's where I thought I could take a cutting:

Same with here:

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Hmm looks like it got ahead of itself, got top heavy, no stake

Personally I would just buy a new tree(s). You can then have some certainty on its size.

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Bramleys can iirc get to something like 30 feet high and spread as large.
If yours was ungrafted or if the part you graft comes from a massive tree (quite likely) you will end up with a monster.

 

[ANDARIAL]

Bramleys can iirc get to something like 30 feet high and spread as large.
If yours was ungrafted or if the part you graft comes from a massive tree (quite likely) you will end up with a monster.

Yeah we have one that was planted 40 years ago
It is a monster,way too many apples we were throwing away bin fuls a few years back.Last year i went wild with the chainsaw as it was getting too close to the electric cables on the road
Point is keep it manageable or regret it

 

[Bint Box]

I agree wtih "MKW", buy a new tree and stake it correctly.
Your tree that has toppled does not look a huge size and a new tree will soon catch up, they grow quickly.

I cut ours back earlier this year with a chain saw, extendable chain saw, loppers and shears, it had got fairly large.
Afterwards I thought I might have overdone it a little but it is in full leaf now and lots of new growth.

I am not sure what type of apple tree it is, it is ancient, was here when we bought the house 24 years ago and looked ancient then?
The apples taste something like half way between an eating apple and a cooking apple, possibly a cider apple?
I injected the tree with nutrients a year or two back to see if it improved the apple taste but it made no difference?

 

[Haze]

Just buy a new tree, at least you will know what variety of apple you are growing

 

[rangor gubbins]

Most apple varieties need a good prune once per year. Usually best done in winter months.
Grafted trees definitely better for home Gardens as others have said.
If you have a non grafted tree and want to manage the size/growth, you can try root pruning but I don't know how effective it will be and you could end up seriously damaging the tree.

 

[Bint Box]

Most apple varieties need a good prune once per year. Usually best done in winter months.
Grafted trees definitely better for home Gardens as others have said.
If you have a non grafted tree and want to manage the size/growth, you can try root pruning but I don't know how effective it will be and you could end up seriously damaging the tree.

Is root pruning where you scribe a one metre radius circle around the tree and then cut/dig into the ground outside of the circle to sever the roots that are further away from the tree?
The logic being that the tap root remains intact and the roots within the 1 metre circle re-grow?

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Doesn’t always work too well with old fruit trees, but some small cuttings, small pot with compost and some rooting compound on the end of the cutting if you want to do it properly. Easier to buy a new one.

 

[iron_monkey]

We planted a small apple tree next to our house turns out it was a huge apple tree so we ended up having to dig it up and move it. Unless you have the room I would go with a new tree with the variety you want spliced onto a smaller root stock

 

[rangor gubbins]

Is root pruning where you scribe a one metre radius circle around the tree and then cut/dig into the ground outside of the circle to sever the roots that are further away from the tree?
The logic being that the tap root remains intact and the roots within the 1 metre circle re-grow?

I think that's basically it, yes. It slows the trees growth but would probably need doing again every year or two.
As others have suggested, buying a new one would be a lot easier.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

I agree wtih "MKW", buy a new tree and stake it correctly.
Your tree that has toppled does not look a huge size and a new tree will soon catch up, they grow quickly.

I cut ours back earlier this year with a chain saw, extendable chain saw, loppers and shears, it had got fairly large.
Afterwards I thought I might have overdone it a little but it is in full leaf now and lots of new growth.

I am not sure what type of apple tree it is, it is ancient, was here when we bought the house 24 years ago and looked ancient then?
The apples taste something like half way between an eating apple and a cooking apple, possibly a cider apple?
I injected the tree with nutrients a year or two back to see if it improved the apple taste but it made no difference?

Is root pruning where you scribe a one metre radius circle around the tree and then cut/dig into the ground outside of the circle to sever the roots that are further away from the tree?
The logic being that the tap root remains intact and the roots within the 1 metre circle re-grow?

I don’t know? It’s a tree? It makes apples?

 

[Richie]

Is root pruning where you scribe a one metre radius circle around the tree and then cut/dig into the ground outside of the circle to sever the roots that are further away from the tree?
The logic being that the tap root remains intact and the roots within the 1 metre circle re-grow?

AFAIK, trees don't have tap roots. Tree roots are actually surprisingly shallow but can extend very far out hence, when they are blown over, a large area of soils is lifted but not a large "depth" of soil.

 

[LACKERKNACKER]

As Rangor has said, pruning; can’t really tell from pictures but there looks far too many branches, we’ve got a couple of established Apple trees and they need a good cut back of branches every 2 or 3 years, probably as important as the tree establishes?

Sorry, can’t help about grafting or taking a cutting, but you’d need something to graft it on to, personally, if I wanted a new Apple tree I’d spend the money on a reasonably established tree.

The other thing to consider is what to do with the Apples,,,,there’s only so many one household can use - fortunately for us, we have a local cider maker who takes our late summer, we get a dozen or so bottles of cider back in return in the spring.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Ok a couple of points first you can't take cuttings (well you can but they take forever and the size of the tree could be huge, apples and other "top fruit" are grown on rootstocks to control their size mahoosive orchard trees are the thing of the past)

If its simply blown over you can knock in a stout stake and some rope and winch it upright, if its snapped clean off and it does look like it its a goner small trees tend to have weak root systems and need permanent staking and that looks like whats happened here its simply got top heavy with the weight of fruit and snapped probably at the union point i.e. where its joined to the rootstock. If it has snapped at the base a new trees is the quickest option you can buy them at various sizes depending on your budget but make sure you stake it

 

[rangor gubbins]

Precision root prunning in orchards
Get one of these systems, or just buy a new tree

KUBOTA & Aurea - Autonomous Orchards - Precision root pruning

youtu.be

 

[iron_monkey]

When we had to move our apple tree we broke a lot of it's roots, it was 6 years ago and this year is the first time it's flowered and has 1 Apple on it.

 

[meths]

Cheers all. A new tree it is then.