Malus Domestica advice

[Solaris]

I thought Malus domestica was a full sized apple, not a (dwarf) crab apple? That could impact on your design plans.

Tell that to all of the crabs spawned by culinary apple trees.
A crabapple is any Malus with a fruit smaller than two inches. Typically, but not necessarily, sour; most apples are sour. While most of our big culinary apples are Malus pumila (Malus domestica having been superseded because somebody needed to publish a paper), you're also going to find a good number of crabs of the same species - and not too infrequently, one the parent of the other or both siblings of the same tree. The Granny Smith, for example, is a seedling of a crabapple tree.

This, unfortunately, means that the only way to be sure what size fruit your apple tree is going to grow is to let it fruit. You're safer with known cultivars and relatively purebred M. zumi, M. sargentii, and probably M. sylvestris (those last can get kind of big for crabs, as they're really just M. pumila gone wild, but the other two are generally pretty small from what I've seen), but M. pumila is just going to do what it wants. If it came from a culinary apple, though, expect its fruit to be on the bigger side.

 

[baron]

I'll be letting it develop fruit, but I can thin out the flowers a little right?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

yes, thin out flowers, that will also thin out the amount of fruit.

 

[baron]

The tree is developing some nice fruits, looking forward to see them in fall!
I cut the new growth back a bout 2 weeks ago and it's pushing new growth again.



However I noticed this morning some of the new growth seems to be wilting?

 

[Solaris]

Have you sprayed it for fungus yet? I think I see some white growth on the wilting leaves.

 

[baron]

Have you sprayed it for fungus yet? I think I see some white growth on the wilting leaves.

No I haven't yet. I managed to get it, but haven't found the time to apply it yet.
Was also thinking it could use another pruning session.. seen as only the new growth is affected it might be a way to check what it is?

How many times or how much are you supposed to prune a healthy crabbie?
I was under the impression you can keep pruning new growth back to -2 shoots until the end of summer (august/september)

 

[baron]

Small apples they are.

 

[baron]

I decided to go for the pruning and repot this spring.
Didn't go quite as far as @Brian Van Fleet suggested, but I'm quite pleased with the result.
Let's see what happens...hope the pot isn't to shallow/small.

 

[baron]

 

[baron]

It's even going to flower on the few buds I left at the tips.
Should I remove them to focus energy on forming branches?

 

[Stan Kengai]

You can leave the flowers, but remove any fruits that form.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I agree with Stan, a few flowers do not draw that much energy. But do not allow fruit to form. Fruit take a lot of energy.

We grow them for the flowers, that is the reward to yourself, for taking care of the tree. If you remove the flowers, you might as well grow boxwoods. Boxwoods bore me to tears. Don't try to get me to grow a boxwood.

 

[BrianBay9]

That stovepipe trunk in the center is still to straight for too long. I agree with Brian. I'd cut that sucker off.

 

[baron]

That stovepipe trunk in the center is still to straight for too long. I agree with Brian. I'd cut that sucker off.

Ye I know, still thinking about it. I can still remove it later...

Despite the big cuts it still had some nice flowers which I removed a little less than a week ago.
I also removed a few unwanted shoots.


In the few days after it has put out quite some growth. Can I wire this already? I'm afraid if I wait longer the shoots will be harder to bend.

 

[karen82]

I was looking at this thread because I have some crabapples I'm working on and I noticed some people were planning to get some from Evergreen Gardenworks. I thought I might share my experience - I ordered 3 from him (2 in 4" pots, one in a gallon pot) and they are healthy and "as advertised" but not really the best for bonsai work imo. Two of the three have perfectly straight trunks and the third has just a tiny bit of a curve to it. I planted them in the ground to fatten up a bit just about 2 years ago and am still waiting for them to get to over 1" diameter before chopping them back to add some movement.

These are 2 of them, when I got them and after 2 growing seasons, "Mary Potter" and "Snowdrift". Not a complaint really, most of the plants aren't advertised as bonsai starts, just as varieties that can make good bonsai. And some people want straight trunks for landscape trees. But it will be a long time before these will look like bonsai.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I was looking at this thread because I have some crabapples I'm working on and I noticed some people were planning to get some from Evergreen Gardenworks. I thought I might share my experience - I ordered 3 from him (2 in 4" pots, one in a gallon pot) and they are healthy and "as advertised" but not really the best for bonsai work imo. Two of the three have perfectly straight trunks and the third has just a tiny bit of a curve to it. I planted them in the ground to fatten up a bit just about 2 years ago and am still waiting for them to get to over 1" diameter before chopping them back to add some movement.

These are 2 of them, when I got them and after 2 growing seasons, "Mary Potter" and "Snowdrift". Not a complaint really, most of the plants aren't advertised as bonsai starts, just as varieties that can make good bonsai. And some people want straight trunks for landscape trees. But it will be a long time before these will look like bonsai.

What were you expecting?

 

[karen82]

What were you expecting?

I was simply hoping for plants that had been maintained for bonsai use being that it seems to focus more on bonsai than landscape plants... with many of the other species, the catalog specifically mentions the plants having been pruned to encourage cooked trunks and low branching. So I was hoping the same would be true of the crabapples, but it was not the case. But, at least they were healthy and ungrafted.

 

[baron]

Thnx for reminding me I hadn't posted in here for a while now.

@karen82 To be fair, any young plant will take a while before it looks like a bonsai. That's why you need to have in mind what exactly you want from the start and buy starting material accordingly. Also I never buy material without seeing it.

 

[baron]

Little update on this crab..
Grew back after the last cuts and flowered again.



It got a major big cut back a while back to take out the stovepipe trunk as many suggested.


Current state

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I was simply hoping for plants that had been maintained for bonsai use being that it seems to focus more on bonsai than landscape plants... with many of the other species, the catalog specifically mentions the plants having been pruned to encourage cooked trunks and low branching. So I was hoping the same would be true of the crabapples, but it was not the case. But, at least they were healthy and ungrafted.

The fact that they are ungrafted cultivars is the bonsai appeal, and the reason for a $20 4” pot. If you were planning to grow them out in the ground, the movement comes with pruning resulting growth. Had they been wired or pruned as 1/4” starts, they would have grown themselves straight in a couple years. Be patient, they will trunk up exponentially each year in the ground. If you want movement in the trunk, you might also consider not planting them straight up, but at a sharp angle.

Here are 2 of my crabs that also came from Evergreen Gardenworks, after 2 years in the ground (from 1 gal), they’re 2”+ trunks.
As received in 2018, planted in 2019, and now:

’seiboldii’:

‘Sugar thyme’:

I dug and chopped the sugar thyme last weekend, and planted it back in the ground; going for some good trunk movement. The ‘seiboldi’ is going to be a larger tree, so I’m going to give it another year or two before I make the next chop.