Fireflybubbles
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:02 pm

2 Branches of Apple Tree Broke Off - Is Tree Dying?

Hello :) I'm new to this forum and was wondering if someone can help. I rent a house that has 3 very large apple trees. Each of them are about 35-45 feet high and about 25-35 feet wide. They are huge, bigger than the house. The biggest of the 3 just had 2 very large branches break off. It was doing so well with a ton of green apples, the most I have seen in the 3 years living at the house. I'd say a good 25% of the tree has fallen off between those two main branches. I was doing research and a lot of pages mention disease or pests which is possible since the landlord has done nothing for the trees in the past 20 years. I really do love these trees and was curious if this tree can be saved? I noticed that some of the apples do have little brown dots. The other trees seem to be ok. I can upload pictures but I'm not quit sure how to on this forum.

CharlieBear
Green Thumb
Posts: 588
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:19 pm
Location: Pacific NW

The sad truth is it depends, how bad did the branches tear into the trunk. If it left a big open scar that is an entry point for disease, potentially. Since you don't know the age of the trees that further complicates matters. If there is a big tear along the trunk, then you can get tree wound repair and paint it on, or mix rubbing alcohol with white or light colored outside latex paint and paint the wounds (home made bandage for open wounds on trees etc). It could be also that the branches couldn't bear the weight of all the apples. It is wise to thin apples to 1-2 tops per cluster early in the spring, to get bigger apples and help prevent limb breakage. If it was a cherry then it would need to come down, as they die from the center out and you only know they are dying when then drop as large limb with cherries on it. I am assuming you didn't also have a wind storm, if you did it could just be wind storm damage. Either way about all you can do without having an arborist, county agent, orchardist etc look at it is paint the wounds and wait and see.



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