Advice needed - taming a wild apple tree
Posted: Sep 12th, 2016, 9:01 am
Well, after living in this house for 6 years, we finally realized that the wild crabapple tree in the back yard is actually a Spartan apple! It had been on the fence line, and left to go wild by the previous owners. No water, etc. This is the 1st year the tree was able to make apples and even wild, unpruned/unthinned we still pulled some very tasty apples off.
Anyway - now that I know it's not a crabapple, I'd like to tame it again.
I'm going to start by bringing water to it from the underground sprinkler lines (probably a drip system or something) and cutting back the surrounding wild vegetation (Saskatoon tree/bush growing through the middle of it).
I know I need to prune it badly, and it's full of bugs (1 branch is nothing but caterpillar web/nest). So it needs to be pruned and sprayed. Plus I think the SIR folks will likely be all over me unless I get the bugs out of that tree.
So I guess I need advice on the following:
- Pruning. How and when (think I need to wait until spring)
- Sprays. What and when.
- Fertilizer or anything else I should do/provide to the tree.
Thanks!
Anyway - now that I know it's not a crabapple, I'd like to tame it again.
I'm going to start by bringing water to it from the underground sprinkler lines (probably a drip system or something) and cutting back the surrounding wild vegetation (Saskatoon tree/bush growing through the middle of it).
I know I need to prune it badly, and it's full of bugs (1 branch is nothing but caterpillar web/nest). So it needs to be pruned and sprayed. Plus I think the SIR folks will likely be all over me unless I get the bugs out of that tree.
So I guess I need advice on the following:
- Pruning. How and when (think I need to wait until spring)
- Sprays. What and when.
- Fertilizer or anything else I should do/provide to the tree.
Thanks!