I'm bringing this thread out of the basement and dusting the cobwebs off to update some of my apple experiments. I copied bjs496's idea that he did on a fig tree. I found that wrapping apple branches that are larger than a pencil is best. Shoots should be growing as upright as possible to make sure the tree will grow correctly. Some of the shoots that were growing closer to horizontal act like horizontal branches even when removed from the parent tree. Wrap 8 to 10 inches of the shoot starting about 6 inches above the point where it grows from the trunk or branch. Also make sure to wrap with the adhesive out to keep from removing some of the root tissue as you unwrap the tape to check it. You can really tell when the shoot is forming root tissue. It gets very bumpy under the tape and will actually stretch the tape some. I'll post pictures of some of the larger shoots I have done this to that are still attached to the parent tree next week after I can go to my mom's house again. I was experimenting on trees at my mom's house because some of them are severely neglected and in danger of dying from various things. Try to select shoots that are branched a little near the top to give a good shape to the tree once it is removed from the parent tree. Shoots don't do very well if removed in the summer. I found this out the hard way. 3 out of 6 limbertwig shoots died within a week of being removed. The other 3 made it, although not without a lot of effort on my part. The rest of the shoots will be removed at regular intervals once dormant to see when it is best to remove them. I will evaluate which shoots do best based on speed of root establishment, time of bud swell and break, also the rate of growth in the spring and summer.

Crabapples are notorious for foliage disease problems. They are carefully bred to produce cultivars that are resistant to these diseases. Prairefire is a good cultivar. I would not want a 'generic' crabapple on my property. When cutting off your suckers try to prune them all the way down to the root they are growing from, but know that you can't always do that. Also the more the tree is pruned (from the top), the more suckers it will produce. Although I think it will produce suckers regardless. Be prepared to continuously prune suckers! It gets worse the older the tree gets. I have two crabapples and I usually do one a year. You get used to seeing them, but just don't let them get out of control.

I had a large palo verde tree removed a couple of years ago. Not sorry either, every spring there were dozens of seedlings to pull up, not to mention getting stuck. I planted a beautiful Emperor Green palo verde tree in it's place. This tree is perfect, no seedlings or thorns, incredible blooms, wish I had planted some of them years ago, since I'm relocating soon. Oh well..

Henry, Yes, I do think that F.c x F.p may be (somewhat) weedy! Maybe just the plain F.palmata is?! Have another similar hybrid (DFIC 0023), VERY vigorous, no suckers yet, big leaves (typically, min lobes), drops fruit, a one more season chance to my 'death-row' list. My Alma came as somewhat mature from ingroud via Herman, as a reject, mostly for lack of produce. I potted it in a 16" big pot. First year, it only produced 2 figs. Next year (2007) it gave me ~50 quarter (USD coin) sized roundish non/splitting with a honey drop on the eye, and very sweet tasting figs. A keeper for me! So far no big significant amount of suckers and not particularly vigorous. Herman figured that the 'potting-up' may be the trick (at least here in the NE) for Alma. After some convincing, I sent him a rooted portion for a (potted) re-trial. Henry, this seems consistent with your trimming method, helping your Alma to fruit (more). George (NJ).