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Old 31-Jan-2006   #6
MattPenton
bonsaiTALK Expert
 
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Join Date: Jun-2005
Location: Orange
Country: USA
Posts: 190
Quote:
Originally Posted by JGamby713
Hey Matt,


Nice little crab apple. I wouldn't do anything to it now, just feed and water it. I think you need to develop some branches before you go thinking too much about it's future.... Good thing is if it is really healthy you should get a fair amount of buds on the trunk so you will have a good selection of future branches to chose from.
Let it grow for a while and be patient!!

Nice stock.

Jason
Jason,
Thanks so much for your thoughts. I will do just that and watch this tree grow for a couple of months before any decisions are made. This sure is exciting as I bought this tree as just a trunk. (My wife thought I was crazy!!)

By the way is your web site up and running yet? I am excited to see all of your field grown maples...

Thanks,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockm
Welcome to apple world I had a large one for quite a while. I loved it. It was too much work. I sold it... I wish I hadn't. Apples are truly wonderful bonsai. Yours is very nice.

Below are some of the things that I learned with my apple:

You may have issues with not having enough cold for apple in So. Cal. If this is a locally grown variety, it may not be a problem. Most apples need a very cold dormancy to fulfill their genetic chilling requirement. If they don't get it, they are cranky.

Expect every kind of leaf eating and trunk eating pest in the neighborhood to make a visit to your new tree. Apple is a bug and fungus magnet. Borers and aphids are particularly troublesome, as are wooly adelgids.

Exposed deadwood on apples is almost always attacked by whatever borer species is in your area. Watch for the signs.

Preventative spraying of a broad spectrum fungal solution, as well as a wide ranging bug killer at the beginning middle and end of the growing season helps.

Apples are extremely cold tolerant. Frost will not affect leaf or flower buds, but frost will burn growth that has extended. Keep an eye out for it. Bring the tree in when it's in the forecast. A failure to do this will result in black dead leaves for a month until they're replaced.

For what it's worth, flowering on apples is highly variable and depends on specialized pruning. Takes some getting used to. Also flowering branches and resulting fruit should be thinned. Failure to thin fruit, in particular, can result in death of the fruiting branch.
RockM,

Thanks so much for the information. I bought this tree at a local bonsai nursery. This year our winter has been exceptionally dry and warm. (As shown by the exploding buds all over this tree!) I do not expect to get fruiting this year because of the winter. If we had 24 hours below 40 F I would be surprised! I hope to see how the tree does in this climate and will keep everyone updated.

Thanks again for the kind words and encouragement to a beginner like me. I look forward to sharing this tree for years to come.

All the best,

Matt
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