Transplant crabapple trees in spring or fall
Plus tips on how to keep cedar apple rust off your plants and voles out of your yard
Q
We have a seedling from our crabapple tree that is in our lawn, and we have let it grow for almost three years. It is a sucker from the parent plant and looks very healthy, standing about four feet tall, and is covered in blossoms. However, we want to transplant it to a different location in the yard. When would be the best time to do this, and are there any suggestions you have to ensure the crabapple continues to produce well? A
First of all, I should offer a bit of a heads-up that the sucker may not be the same variety as the parent plant. Sometimes a desirable variety is grafted onto a hardy rootstalk, so the sucker you see may not be the same variety as the rest of the tree. This may or may not be the case with yours. Regardless, if you want to transplant it you will need to carefully dig down to where the sucker is originating from and then cut it off from the main root. When doing this, ensure that you are taking some of the roots that the sucker has formed for itself.
Transplant the young tree to the area you want, work some bone meal into the planting hole, and keep it well watered until it gets established. The best time to do this would be in the spring, before the buds open. You can transplant the tree in the fall as well, but doing it now, in the heat of the summer, is not a good time.
Q
We have Schubert trees and have monitored them closely for a black knot issue that has plagued the area, but we are noticing our trees are not producing as many leaves on the branches. The trees are not as “full” looking as in the past, and the branches seem bare. We have also been plagued with cedar apple rust on junipers that we are planning to remove, so we’re not sure if that is affecting anything with the Schubert tree. Our neighbour believes the problem is caused by ants, but we are not sure what the cause is. Can you offer some advice? A
There are not any preventive measures that I know of for the black knot issue. The symptoms you are describing could be several other issues, so I would keep monitoring the trees to check for any other warning signs.
As for the cedar apple rust, I don’t think ants are the issue, since the disease is a fungal problem spread via spores. On evergreen hosts such as the junipers, you will see the formation of galls, which resemble apples. They look like brown apples. When mature, they send out bizarre-looking gelatinous orange fingers. On deciduous hosts such as hawthorn and apple trees, the leaves will begin to show yellow spots. Over time these spots will turn orange, and will eventually develop black spots. By mid-summer you can see tiny tubes forming on the undersurface of the leaves.
Many experts are recommending the use of sulphur as a means of treating cedar-hawthorn and cedar-apple rusts. Your local garden centre will carry a sulphur spray. Start spraying in the spring, when the flower buds are turning pink. Spray again when the petal fall is at 75 per cent, and then once again 10 days later. You can also try using a copper spray as both a preventive measure and to help control the issue. Cedar apple rust may also infect some members of the rose family.
A few weeks ago I talked about keeping voles out of the yard over the winter. A reader took the time to write in on the subject with an idea I had forgotten about that is worthy of trial. Here is what she said: “We had the same problem, but I phoned Greenland Garden Centre in Sherwood Park and they told me to spread blood meal around the perimeter of our property in the fall. It worked!” Blood meal is a good deterrent for many creatures, and I’m glad to hear that it worked out. Good luck and happy gardening!