Is my Apple tree doomed?

[Chezenbred]

I'm a new homeowner and have kept very busy clearing trees and such. BUT I have this one apple tree I wanted to save. Not sure what kind other than it gave a good sized green apple that the squirrels loved.

The tree has not been maintained well imho. Never sprayed, and poorly pruned. The problem is that it has a large number of dead branches. smalls ones under the canopy for the most part. In many cases, a single part of an otherwise healthy branch is dead and dry. I was just going to prune it and hope for the best. But then I noticed that one of the two main trunk pieces has a nice (or not so) spiral of woodpecker workings all the way up it.

Am I wasting my time trying to help this poor thing? Is the woodpecker markings a sure bet it's already too late and it's jsut playing bug hotel?

 

[Tom Dunlap]

What have you got to loose? Go ahead and cut off the deadwood and see what happens. There are plenty of examples of decayed trees that still stand.

don't be too concerned with the woodpecker holes. Unless they are so close together of numererous, they shouldn't girdle the tree.

 

[Chezenbred]

The holes are pretty close and pretty nuermous but I don't think it'll girdle it.

The only thing I have to lose is spending a couple years trying to save it versus getting something else going in it's spot. I'm a little impatient when it comes to getting this yard in shape and don't want to waste time. I guess I have to weigh the effort to save it to the value I assign it. So it get s ayear and some effort, and we'll go from there. I guess my main fear was that the woodpecker holes meant the tree was a standing buffet.

 

[treeseer]

I'm a new homeowner and have kept very busy clearing trees and such. ?

What trees are you cutting? If you don't know what kind they are and what potential they hold, you may be removing good assets. get an arborist on site, or at least identify what you have before you cut it, for goodness sake.

If you've already cut a lot, ID what sprouts back next spring before you kill it. Mnay trees are improved by coppicing, i.e. training sprouts.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Any tree is a potential standing buffet for birds, insects and the many rougish fungiis around. Without a lot of good pictures and probably some video no one is going to be able to do a long-distance assessment.

Find a good, local, arborist with credentials. There are many good arbos on this site that should be able to give you an idea of how to deal with your lot.

 

[Chezenbred]

I'm cutting oaks and maples. I have a one acre lot.. and to say it is a wooded lot would be a HUGE understatement. I have so much tree cover that I have a problem with moisture. I've cut 25 trees so far and haven't made even a tiny dent. The woman who owned the house prior to me adopted 21 (yes, twenty one) children over her lifetime and spent her time caring for them (they were all special needs kids). She didn't have time for lawn and tree maintenance. Portions of this house have never seen daylight. I have probably 6 trees I'll need an arborist for as they are either too close to the house, or too close to power lines. I have no branches under 25 feet, it's all canopy. The larger oaks have many large dead branches which pose a hazard to my kids playing in the yard. We already had a branch large enough to kill someone fall in the middle of the yard during the night.

I value trees greatly, but if I don't thin the herd, the whole herd is going to die, as many have already started. I want to keep the apple tree so I'm going to try to get it some more sunlight and prune it carefully. I'm going to keep a couple of the 75+ foot oaks, the ones that aren't leaning or obviously on their way out.

I can tell you I have a greatly increased respect for arborists.. All I do all weekend is clear trees and the resulting mess and I feel BEAT down! It's hard work like nothing else I've done.

 

[Chezenbred]

Also, is there a good guide to getting a positive ID on this apple tree? It produced green apples that got to be a decent size (little smaller than a tennis ball) and they all dropped by Mid August, but that's about all I know!