Something girdled my big (semi-std) apple tree :(

[applestar]

Unbelievable! I discovered today that something has girdled my Enterprise apple tree. It’s a semi-standard and I’ve had it for quite a while now, and it is pretty big — I’m guessing at least 5-6 inches in diameter at the base. I didn’t think you had to protect them during the winter when they get this big, though I normally do put trunk protection aeound smaller trees, especially since I lost an espalier-in-training Pristine apple tree to girdling a few winters ago.

I was looking up and realizing the neighbor’s white pine tree had gotten even bigger (I SO wish they had thought about how big these trees were going to get as they mature before planting a row of them between our properties....) the one closest to the apple tree was definitely reaching its branches at the Apple’s dripline, robbing it of sunlight, and which means its roots are robbing the apple of nutrients and water....

I was thinking this explained the poor performance of the Enterprise apple tree in the last couple of years... and thinking maybe this tree is just not going to do particularly well here any more, even if I were to cut back the pine branch reaching for the apple tree... and maybe it’s time to think about planting some new trees....

Then looking at the ground, I was thinking the ground AROUND the tree was unusually soggy, wondering if there is some kind of sink-hole forming to hold so much water in puddles.

Thinking this is not good for the apple tree.... THEN FOCUSED ON THE TRUNK

[JONA]

Oh dear Star...
Has it gone all the way round?
Makes you spit fire.. fingers crossed that there’s enough cambium left to carry the sap.

[applestar]

Thanks JONA... but those are front and back view photos in the left and center panel... so... yeah.

HOWEVER — I have to go and see if it’s a goner, too (I didn’t think to look closely before) but do you see the slightly thicker sucker a couple of feet to the left in the right-most photo? I practice-grafted the Enterprise onto that sucker/watershoot maybe three years ago and to my surprise it took.

So I’m going to go look once it’s light enough and if that one is intact, then I’m going to put protection around it and continue to let it grow, though I don’t know if it will do any better.

Due to other issues I mentioned, I’m not completely devastated, — I was already thinking the location was becoming unsuitable for this tree and “expecting” it to decline.... having trees — not just the neighbor’s but all the surrounding trees grow bigger and bigger, creeping longer shadows and roots into my little garden, and changing growing conditions ... has been an on-going issue.

My garden beds have been moving from near the back fence to closer to the house, and sometimes out to front years every year... Time to re-think and plan renewal of fruit tree planting areas, too.

[JONA]

Go for it Star.
Many years ago I had the good fortune to attend a course run by one of the great old grafter experts who worked their magic in the mid nineteen hundreds.
He showed us several examples of loop grating where he had used suckers or new rootstocks to skip over damaged trunks.
In fact I remember one picture where he had put three grafts into a trunk about three foot from the ground...then once they had taken ..he removed the piece of trunk between the grafts and the ground.
The result was a tree supported on three looping trunks with a central gap. Glorious!

[Travellar]

I feel your pain, but at least I can learn from your misfortune.
Our own trees are well planted in an open field, so plenty of sun and moisture. But they've been attacked by deer, loose cattle, and more deer. I'd say they're now about 1/3rd the size of what we planted. The cattle tore several trees apart, and the deer returned early this spring to nip the buds off the apple trees. I've got three that should recover, one that might, and one that's probably a goner.

But at least I've learned that even when they do get a bit larger, trunk protection shall remain a priority.

[applestar]

She’s NOT dead, Jim! (...err.. John )

...so, as the spring progressed, darned if the Enterprise didn’t leaf out, bloom and set fruit...





...any thoughts as to what to do at this point? It seems like a lot of fruitset — is It trying to do a last hurrah? Should I thin severely to conserve energy? Should I do anything for the chewed up trunk? — maybe clean up all the watershoots/suckers and wrap with hardware cloth?



He's Dead Jim

[JONA]

Great news Star.
Don’t thin until after the June drop. Then to one ot two per cluster.
It’s the old adage....if a tree thinks it’s going to die...it crops.
Guess it’s what the old timers used to do when they did bark ringing of fruit trees.