Hi virraszto-
Could you get us a close up or two of the apples themselves? -Glenn

Sure. Here are two photos.
Thanks!

{{gwi:124205}}

{{gwi:124206}}

I forgot to mention that the woman who owned the place before me was an invalid for ten years and the yard was like a jungle when we bought it. I doubt she planted it. Could it have seeded from a bird dropping?

Hi virraszto-
I am not an expert... but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

So, youÂre saying youÂve done almost nothing to that apple tree and yet you have such great looking apples? Well, IÂm jealous! If I donÂt do serious spraying and then bag my apples, then I wonÂt get anything that even looks like an apple anymore.

Looking at the shape of the apple, and the color, IÂm guessing itÂs a "Red Delicious", but perhaps somebody with more experience will say otherwise.

As from a seed dropping (sometimes called a "chance seedling") anything is possible. If so, that normally isnÂt desirable because you never know what pollinated the tree where the apple/seed came from, and itÂs is extremely, again extremely, unlikely to get a good apple tree from a chance seedling. Normally, on most young apple trees you will see a graft union at the base I donÂt see that on yours, but it could be old enough where you wouldnÂt. I am confused why there are so many leaders coming out of the ground. IÂm wondering if there was some root suckering going on... but IÂm outside of my knowledge now.

If those are tent caterpillars in the picture, I would remove them.

I see a good amount of shade in your pic is that just the time of day? The tree would prefer full sun, but itÂs obviously making apples for you now.

So, what type of problems are you having? Are you having problems with bugs? If so, try searching these forums for "bagging apples".

And, really without a specific question/issue, thatÂs probably the best advice I can give you search these forums and the rest of the web and start reading. And, reading and reading and reading. And, when you get a specific question that you canÂt find the answer to, post here, and there are a bunch of experienced people that are happy to help.

Good luck!

-Glenn

Glenn,
Thank you for replying to my post. I've done absolutely nothing to it for 5 yrs. I did go out and look and it does look like it has been pruned sometime in the past--so it probably was planted then. It's very small though. It has to be at least 15 yrs old, I would guess.

Yes, as far as bugs go, those beetles are eating up the leaves. Those same beetles are eating the leaves on my wild grape vines. I don't know what kind of beetle they are though.

As far as sun goes, I'm paying attention today. So far, it's almost noon and it has got very little sun. I think it gets the majority of sun after 2 pm.

You mention the leaders coming out of the ground. Yep, I took a look there too. I don't know anything about trees, but that does look odd. I don't see a main trunk.

The area the tree is at is way in the back of the yard, in front of the woods. It's very shady back there and it often floods.

I don't know how the tree is still alive..lol

I'm going to gather up what we can't eat and give to the neighbor for his pig and horses.

I'll have to read up on how to take care of it.
Thanks again. ;)

Virraszto

A seedling would usually be either dry and bad-tasting or just plain tasteless; dramatically worse than even supermarket fruit. If they're sweet at all its probably a graft of some spur-type Red Delicious.

I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it; thin out the canopy a bit to let more light in, and don't worry about the multiple trunks.

Applenut

It looks like a spur type red delicious. The graft union was maybe planted below ground level and that allowed the scion to root and grow the suckers? I'd say just prune the branches growing towards the center to open it up a little and any branches that cross or rub each other and be happy with your compact tree. It really looks healthy from what I can see. I'd remove the branch with the caterpillar nest and kill any caterpillars you see anywhere else on the tree. You said there are more on a grapevine? Remove the nest and kill them also. If you fish, they make good fish bait. Other than that they are useless.