I have a old farmstead in northern WI. There is a very old large tree that I was pretty sure was some kind of apple, but I have never seen a apple on it. Last weekend I was up there and it was full of flowers and there was small offsprings popping up all over. Many of these were full of flowers too. I thought I would try to transplant some. When I dug the first one up, it was growing from one of the large roots from the parent tree. Is there any chance it will live and turn out to be a productive tree?
Replanting apple trees from suckers?
- Thread starter ruskbucks
- Start date
That's my plan for next year. I had to cut off a lot of the tops because there was rabbit damage. They're only from a Sargent Crab, so they'll be naturally dwarfed, but I figured I could plant them in a lot of places that I wouldn't want to plant trees I paid for, OR just use them as experiment trees, or even just as pollinators.
The tree was about 6 feet tall. I wasn't expecting it to be attached to a root that big. I would say it was about 16"long horizontaly and about 2 1/2 inches in diameter where I cut through with shovel.The other two I moved were farther away from tree and had more of a vertical root.
It might be tough to keep a 6' tall transplant alive unless you're able to water it frequently. But it's pretty easy to dig up smaller suckers and have them live - but you never really know what kind of apple tree you'll end up with. I usually dig up a few suckers every year and I throw them in a large pot and baby them in my yard all summer until I transplant them in the fall. None of them have produced fruit yet, but they seem to be pretty hardy.
