In the absence of good close views of winter stem buds and other features looks so far to be a small-growing crabapple. One that is grafted onto a trunk of another kind. Roots do look like there is a separation between them and the trunk, as though the roots are a third variety. However their lumpiness implies deformity resulting from careless container culture (a pandemically prevalent practice). Or some other adversity. So maybe that is producing a misleading appearance. Otherwise - yes - there is a stock, an interstem and a scion all in one grafted combination. Such is not beyond the realm of existing practices by any means.

The pix enlarge when clicked. It’s a Malus.

I clicked to enlarge originally. Hence "looks so far to be a small-growing crabapple".

ok.. so a four foot mid section.. would have to be what... an inch think to support itself.. so what.. you have 5 to 8 years in growing that.. so you can graft it to a root mass big and old enough pump the requisite water ... and only then.. 3.. 5.. or 7 years later.. you can graft a few buds of the favored specimen atop it all ...

seems like a lot of work for money later ... wonder how they stayed in business ...

i have no clue how old the library is.. nor how long the tree has been there ... i did find a claim it was built in the 60s ... does this tree look a 60 years old???

ken

My hort. tutor had an apple with summat like 17 different varieties using several different grafts. It was not a very attractive tree, for sure, but it was a great demonstration of resilience and adaptability. Yep, 60 years looks pretty feasible to me.

i miss my point i believe...

someone had to grow a root mass for 3 to 5 years.. to accept a one inch 4 foot standard ... this process could easily take 5 to 7 years.. and thats all before grafting on the foo foo part .... thats is an high invest in in time .. effort and space ... you would have to sell a lot of them to feed the family ...

ken

O,my tutor's tree was exactly that, Ken...a demonstration of endless meddling...certainly not as an ornamental or even fruitful cropper. For a while, I also fell under this spell (power-mad control freak)... there is evidence of this faffing all about my allotment. Unlikely to share pics of these unless I go in for some sort of public shaming/shrub massacre thread.