Ever come back and find your scion tree Paul Bunyan'ed?

[cavey]

Roughly a month or so ago I located an awesome apple/crab tree still loaded with fruit and the ground around it was littered with large fruit. I intended to go back and ask the property owner if I could gather some scion. My intent was to wait till Feb/March to gather it if possible and allowed to... maybe a ninja operation if I didnt get permission but regardless I never would have dreamed with our sub zero temps anything would happen to it.

The tree had been so loaded with fruit over the years especially so this past year that its limbs drooped and some where even busted. I have never seen a tree with this much fruit around it.... It was on the edge of the property and didnt look like a place for a planted apple tree so Im assuming its a wild seed tree... anyways I digress


Today I made a special trip to ask and as I pulled up to the property to my horror the tree had been pruned back to almost the stump.... I swung back around and there wasnt much left. From the road it looked like all the limbs where cut off and dragged away. Bummed I went on to look at some farm equipment at a local auction site down the road figuring I had lost this opportunity ... It was the best tree I had located this late fall for grafting and one I really really wanted.
Something told me to go back and stop in and talk to the owner, (arrrrrg baby just puked on the couch) .... anyways - I got lucky, Hell of a nice guy, he cut the tree back last week, his wife is pissed at him... said he killed her apple tree. He cut it back because almost every branch had bent and cracked from the weight of the apples this year. He had all the branches still piled up behind the house by the fire pit and let me take scion from them. There were still a few water sprouts on the tree that I got too. So I still have a shot at grafting the tree.
Bonus is its not a crab like I thought, its an apple tree with great tasting apples - and the fruit was decent sized. Below is the before pic of the tree, I should have took a photo of what was left but I was so grateful to get what I was able to that I thanked him and went on my way! If I won anything on the online auction I will go back and take a pic.

Close call!

 

[IkemanTx]

Help him trim all the water sprouts next winter and use them all for scion wood!


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[Telemark]

It should come back, though. Right?

If it does, maybe offer to train/prune it into a sustainable shape.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^ Telemark & Ikeman are right. I'd help that guy prune, train, fertilize, etc. You may make a good friend there who'll let you get scions going forward.

I remember when you first posted a pic of this tree. I'm glad you got some scion to try grafting, Cavey.

 

[cavey]

Its going to water sprout like hell, there is hope for it but he cut it back 90-95% and I'm not kidding.

We have had a ton of snow and colder temps. The branches where cut a week ago and I was able to dig out/pull out enough from the future burn pile to get some ok scion. It was nice and green and looked good. I have an order of B118 coming and they are small dia root stock so all in all I think I will get some viable grafts (we had a very cold spell -35+ in spots which is as cold as I can remember so there will be a lot of stressed scion this year).

From what I could see in the pic (size of apples on diff limbs and trunks) and from talking with him that it is an un-grafted tree so (there are 3-4 trunks coming up from the base and all seemed to have the same apples on them). If none of the grafts take this spring I will go back next winter and get some. If I get a handful of them to take I will be sure to get a potted tree back to him as thanks.

I asked if the deer do come in and he said yes, the location is just a spot that does not see much for deer... if you look at the pic the tree is still loaded and the ground is insanely full of dropped apples. I'm not kidding when I say it was a solid mass of inches deep apples around the tree and they had not shriveled up much.

If it is a wild seed apple tree - its a winner, for a late hanging food source with large sweet apples, its an annual producer, and they seem to be able to keep with out going completely to mush. As gross as it was I was tempted to bite/gnaw into one off the ground - but for a late season food source that likely doesnt matter - just that it would be there to eat is good enough.

 

[Telemark]

Sounds good. If you are successful, maybe give it a name and share it around. I recommend "Phoenix" or "Lazarus" as a name. And I'd definitely be interested in scions in the future.

 

[cavey]

I wish I had a better history with the tree, saw it once - was impressed came back and it was a stump - got lucky and got some scion. Im going to watch the tree next year to see what it does and will give the guy a tree or two. I'm sure I can get more scion from it next year if it comes back. Like you said offer to prune for him. Nice guy, he even offered up some grape cuttings if I wanted them. There is a pasture just down the road that has about a 1/2 dozen trees that still have fruit hanging. I think it was sandbur that said - certain areas just seem to have a bunch of these trees around... We have a number of old orchards around and that may be the reason I have found so many without looking to hard.

In the next few years I am going to have a bunch of trees that I can share scion with... hopefully this one as well, and anyone is welcome to them... Im going to frankenstein what ever scion I have left over from the ones I took off this tree onto a couple nursery trees just to make sure I get something viable.

I usually name them after who's property I got them off of... otherwise I was going to an auction so I though "Auction Block" would be cool... but I do get the phoenix name especially if the original tree dies off which there is a very real possibility... there is no doubt in the spring most of the tree is going up in smoke in his burn pit.