Crab Apple Tree and moving home

davebquinn

Hello

First post, thanks in advance for any help

I'm moving home in the next few weeks and I'm trying to work out how to take a crab apple tree that my mum gave my son when he was born ten years ago.

As you can imagine its a big tree now, we are moving to a house with a bigger garden so space isn't an issue but they garden will need to be cleared when we move in so there's nowhere to plant the tree as soon as we move in.  Obviously we can't really move it after we've handed over the keys to the house to the new owners

I've had a look on the internet and moving it looks like a job for a proper gardner, and I'm not sure it's practical to do it.

Would I be able to take a cutting from the tree and grow a new one?  Am I too late in the year to do it? 

Thanks

Dave

Posy

Hi Dave. Moving a ten year old tree is a big job and probably not for the ordinary gardener. Even with a professional, its survival is uncertain. The mature trees you see at Chelsea are specially grown in ways that make them easier to move, but even then with heavy machinery and a team of workers.

I'm not aware that you can grow them from cuttings - someone else will know - but I think your best bet is to buy a new young tree when your garden is ready.

JennyJ

I would leave the original tree for the new owners to enjoy rather than risk it not surviving.  The usual advice for attempting to move an established small tree/large shrub is to dig a trench around the rootball and fill with compost the year before so that it grows a new more compact system of feeder roots before the move, but that obviously isn't possible now.

You could attempt hardwood cuttings but there's no guarantee that they would take.

If the tree has suckers and is on its own roots, not grafted, then you could have a dig around and see if you can separate one with some roots.

If it still has fruit on it, you could collect some and try growing from seed.  It'd be a long-term project and any offspring won't be the same as the parent, but your son would still have something from "his" tree.

Papi Jo

IMHO if that tree was there when the sales deed was signed, it belongs to the new owners and you are not allowed to (re)move it unless there was a signed agreement to that effect.

Dovefromabove

Papi Jo said:

IMHO if that tree was there when the sales deed was signed, it belongs to the new owners and you are not allowed to (re)move it unless there was a signed agreement to that effect.

That is also my understanding of the legal position.

davebquinn

Thanks for the replies and the advice

We were going to include removing it as part of the contract, my son is upset about having to leave it behind.

Looks like we'll have to try and get an offcut or grow from a seed.

Bee witched

Hello @davebquinn .... and welcome to the forum.

Now is the ideal time to try and take what are known as hardwood cuttings, and well worth a try once the leaves have fallen off your tree. 
This link is for blackcurrants .... but the method is the same.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-take-hardwood-cuttings-of-blackcurrant-plants/

Take 7 or 8 and put in a pot so you can take them with you. Well worth a try.
<br>Bee x<br><br><br>

Palustris

Success with Cuttings from Apple is very unusual. Seed will produce almost anything except the original tree. Grafting is the best option. See if you can find a rootstock. Take pencil sized pieces  about 12 inches long of the original, now and store them wrapped in foil in the freezer compartment of the fridge. If you can get a root stock them graft in Spring. Worked for me.

Dovefromabove

And why not take son along to a good tree nursery and let him choose another tree that he can help to plant and nurture right from the start ... hopefully he'll enjoy that and it'll help soften the loss.  After all, leaving an old home always means that there's a little sadness, but hopefully the new happy experiences you're going to have in your new home will outweigh them.  One of the lessons of growing up

Papi Jo

Totally agree with @Dovefromabove . And now is the right time to get and plant such trees. However, you said you need to clear the new garden when you move in, so this might mean having to wait either for a few months or until autumn next year. Whatever you do I strongly recommend NOT buying a crab-tree in a container, but "bare root", a much better option. When I got my 'Evereste' crab-apple 4 years ago I travelled 150 kilometres to find the right specimen in a reputable nursery. It has become a lovely tree, almost all year round.

Photographed today, Nov. 14th (in its 4th year of plantation)

Liriodendron

I'd certainly try some hardwood cuttings.  You have nothing to lose...