New-found crab apple tree? how to help it out?

[Derek Reese 29]

I was doing some scouting on my in-laws property up North near the New York border last weekend and found a few small thorny crab-apple trees (not even sure of the species ID). They were in a brushy draw between 2 ag fields. Is there anything I can do next year (fertilizing, pruning, trimming the brush/weeds around them) to help them produce more food? There is alot of corn/beans in this area, but I figured any soft mast would help out.
Thanks, in advance for your help.

 

[scott44]

I would clean out around them to allow sunlight to the tree and competing trees/bushes for water and nutrients. When the trees are dormant I'd prune all the dead wood and any crossing branches not to exceed about 1/3 of all the live tree. Once it is cleaned up around the tree you might have to protect it with fencing or else it'll get rubbed and browsed.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I would clean out around them to allow sunlight to the tree and competing trees/bushes for water and nutrients. When the trees are dormant I'd prune all the dead wood and any crossing branches not to exceed about 1/3 of all the live tree. Once it is cleaned up around the tree you might have to protect it with fencing or else it'll get rubbed and browsed.

I was wondering about fencing around it. My in laws certainly wouldn't mind if I did that to a couple trees, but these look fairly young and well-established....plus there is a lone tree standing about 5 yards out in a grassfield that looks like it would get hit well before any of the smaller, thornier crabs. (this was based on the several years plus of signpost rubs on that tree)

 

[scott44]

Just saying if you cleaned up around them they might stick out more and have a better chance of damage with medium to high deer density. I also put 3-4' window screen around the trunks of my apple trees to stop girdling from rabbits, mice and voles.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Just saying if you cleaned up around them they might stick out more and have a better chance of damage with medium to high deer density. I also put 3-4' window screen around the trunks of my apple trees to stop girdling from rabbits, mice and voles.

thanks for the tips! it would make that a nice little spot that just so happens to be within long bow range of a lock on...

 

[trampledbyturtles]

R u sure they r crabapples and not hawthorns?

 

[Derek Reese 29]

R u sure they r crabapples and not hawthorns?

I am definitely not sure....the small fruits (maybe dime sized and yellowish red with stems) were from 4-6 foot high shrubby, thorny brush-like shrubs. I will try to get a picture sometime.

 

[scott44]

I always called these crabapples until I started to get into this habitat stuff, some of it came from what my grand parents called them so I just took it for gospel. These pics are of Hawthorn although some crabs do have thorns.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I always called these crabapples until I started to get into this habitat stuff, some of it came from what my grand parents called them so I just took it for gospel. These pics are of Hawthorn although some crabs do have thorns.

that might be what they are, though the trees were smaller and the thorns straighter? maybe they were just stunted? will the deer eat the fruit?
Thanks again-Derek

 

[scott44]

that might be what they are, though the trees were smaller and the thorns straighter? maybe they were just stunted? will the deer eat the fruit?
Thanks again-Derek

I really don't think they are a draw for deer and mine are early droppers, early season I see a lot of bird usage. I'm sure deer will eat them because I hardly ever see them on the ground but these trees are in the edge of a clover plot.

 

[mikmaze]

try top working it? get some donor pieces of some well known, good to draw deer, attracting crabs and have at it......... I have a few crabs by my spot in NY that the deer do not even bother to eat the fruit, must be hella nasty if they don't eat em. come spring the ground is covered in rotting fruit from the fall drop.

 

[Lucky_P]

I've got grafts of pear on cockspur hawthorn, done in 2001... it's very dwarfing...20 yr old graft is only about 8ft tall.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Derek - If the leaves on your unknown trees look like the ones in 2nd pic of Scott44's post #8 - you most likely have some type of hawthorn trees. Long, straight needles and leaves with "toothy, saw-blade-edged" leaves sound like hawthorn to me. There are several varieties of hawthorn, so more investigation may be needed. Hawthorns are very good grouse and turkey food sources, as well as for other native birds. The dense, thorny limbs make for really good nesting cover for a variety of songbirds that will also eat the bad bugs in your fruit trees. We have several plantings of Washington Hawthorn trees at camp, and they make a very good habitat tree to have around! They seed themselves in readily and we get free seedlings to transplant elsewhere. They need sun - if they get too shaded, they'll get thin and spindly, and bear less red fruit. We love 'em.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Derek - If the leaves on your unknown trees look like the ones in 2nd pic of Scott44's post #8 - you most likely have some type of hawthorn trees. Long, straight needles and leaves with "toothy, saw-blade-edged" leaves sound like hawthorn to me. There are several varieties of hawthorn, so more investigation may be needed. Hawthorns are very good grouse and turkey food sources, as well as for other native birds. The dense, thorny limbs make for really good nesting cover for a variety of songbirds that will also eat the bad bugs in your fruit trees. We have several plantings of Washington Hawthorn trees at camp, and they make a very good habitat tree to have around! They seed themselves in readily and we get free seedlings to transplant elsewhere. They need sun - if they get too shaded, they'll get thin and spindly, and bear less red fruit. We love 'em.

I should be getting up there over Christmas break and will try to sneak over and snap a few pics. I think that would be the most helpful.--thanks again!

 

[Timinator]

I'd spray them now with Dormant Oil Spray. 3 sprays of it total over the winter. It keeps all the bugs and moulds from forming, laying egss, etc. Good stuff.

 

[Jhoss]

I second hawthorn for grouse. Growing up in the UP we had a patch of hawthorn, crabs and wild plum. Always partridge in that patch.

 

[chummer]

I have tons of them. They differ in color and drop time. Some of them get eaten and some of them go untouched. Their thorns are no joke and will pierce pretty much anything they get ahold of. You can keep them cut back and they form a shrub. A line of them would keep anyone from walking through.