What is wrong with our newly planted espalier apple tree?

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

One tree leafed out nicely and has tiny fruit on it. The other one has some leaves on the right side but on the left side it’s showing little life and where it did start to leaf out, that his all dried up and turned brown. When we planted it we didn’t dig the hole one and a half times the size of the container it was in, we dug smaller holes.We got a little lazy with this planting, as we have a new home and had just finished doing all of the landscaping ourselves. But we did add Peat moss and topsoil to the hole. We have been watering them. I am not sure if we are watering them too much or not enough. We called the nursery and asked for a replacement. After talking to the owner a bit, we finally were able to get him to say he would replace it. We picked up a replacement tree last week, it is still in it's growing container and it is looking the same way..... it looks funny, and what growth did come out at one time has all dried up. I will add a photo of the one that looks good.(we have a total of 3 trees now- two which looks the same, and one that looks good) I never loose anything that we plant. It is a terrible feeling not to know what to do. The trees were around $100 each, and that is bordering on the expensive side to me. It isn't that which is bothering me, it's the fact that I don't know what is wrong with it.

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Comments (3)

Donna R
Original Author
3 years ago
Additional photos
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years ago
fyi.. there is also a tree forum...

read this: https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

note section 7 .... never amend a planting hole..

what is your soil type.. does it drain ok??

in every post.. tell us where you are.. big city name... its been in the high 80s in my MI for the last week.. see section one at link above.. its not really tree planting time...

you can either.. if you have draining soil... plant pot and all for the summer.. them plant in mother earth in fall ... or just put the pot in bright full shade.. keeping the POT out of the sun... black pots can get too hot and cook the roots...

ken
Donna R thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
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Donna R
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
We are in zone 6A, 60 miles south of Cleveland Ohio. The apple trees in question have been in the ground for a little over a month. We have so many late frosts here in our area, that the nursery where we purchased many of our things, was holding off on shipments. We bought the items as soon as they got them in and planted them right away. We were looking for nursery items in April, but pickings were slim for the above reason. I realize that cool season planting is less stressful than really warm weather planting. Our problen is, we don't know if it is a watering problem or a drainage problem. It doesn't make sense, the tree that is doing well is 5 feet from the one not doing well, and was planted in the same way. Could it be that the tree that looks was farther along than the other one? With these particular trees, we tagged one tree at the nursery and picked it up a few weeks later, when we were able to borrow a truck. They had a tarp over it with a sold tag and it was starting to leaf out beautifully. We decided to buy another one, and the other espalier trees were in another section and they were not far along leafing out at all. We brought them home and planted them right away, About a week after planting them, we had a pretty good frost one morning, It was May 18th, because I had to be up early to have a test done at the hospital. I saw the frost. It was pretty substantial. I don't know if this affected the tree or not. I am so confused.