Growing Apple Trees from Seed 6 Years Old

today's the day that we finally get you guys updated on the apple trees started from seed more than six years ago hey everyone it's rob the backyard gardener and welcome back to my channel lot of you been asking about the updates on all of the fruit trees that have grown from seed over the last several years and so today we're going to feature the apple trees now i've got four apple trees that started from seed two of which started january 1st 2016 and then we've got couple that started from seed on may 7 2016 and then finally i'll give you an update on the gala apple tree that got from nursery that's been struggling as well anyway let me stop rambling on let's get the camera turned around we'll take look at the two oldest trees first then the two next trees then that nursery tree and i'll give you some final thoughts with the wrap-up at the end so figured i'd kick this video off with the biggest of all the apple trees i've grown from seed and again this was started on january 1st 2016 but this guy has gotten huge and this year is the year he has put on ton of flowers i'd say right now after topping this tree it's probably still around 14 15 feet tall but wanted to give you good look at some of the flower clusters on here there are flower clusters everywhere and as pan around to show you all these flower clusters want to give you little bit of background of this tree so we started from seed on january 1st 2016. it was not the first tree that had that had put on flowers it took several years think about four and half years and then it put on couple of flowers it's second year had it in the ground and then they all dropped the next year which was last year it set on flowers and actually set few fruits but the fruits didn't make it matter of fact about month after setting fruits they all fell off the tree and didn't have any fruit sets so don't know if this is crab apple tree yet but based on how it looks on the clusters of flowers i'm gonna assume it is and also based on the other tree it probably is as well but you guys can let me know based on these flowers if you can tell right now by the look of them if it's going to be crab apples or possibly an edible fruit anyway this is the first year it's had this much flowers on the tree and so i'm hoping that we set fruit hold the fruit and are able to do update on the number of fruit sets and how they're progressing throughout the year and possibly whether or not we have edible fruit or if it's just another crab apple tree also want to point out that know that apple trees send up lot of water sprouts at the base and no matter how many times trim these away even at the ground level or pull them away they just seem to keep coming back and don't know if there's remedy out there that you guys can recommend for me but i'm gonna end up having to go through all of these lower branches down here and just snipe them off once again or snip them off and hopefully they don't keep coming back but they just seem to keep coming back every single time and do know that apple trees do that and do know that it does take away some of the ability to perform better as far as height and branching out when they have those so anyway let me know but i'm super happy about this tree it's monster it looks like it's doing well we've got lot of flowers on it like keep mentioning because i'm super excited to see what kind of apples we get off of this tree now that it actually has ton of flowering clusters unlike it's had any of the previous years before move on to the next set of trees just want to give you guys one last look at some of the newer blossoms that are opening on this tree and to talk little bit about the pruning that did in the off season on this tree because it was starting to have lot of crowdiness in the center of the canopy lot of the side shoots were growing towards the center of the tree really clogging it up but really was trying to get little bit more of an open canopy down here in the middle if you will because if we do set some fruits don't want branches like these impeding any sunlight to get to the middle or at least get on the fruit in general but anyway this tree like said is loaded i'm super excited love how it's looking hopefully we get some good progress updates this year and hopefully we have some exciting things happen this year as well now let's go to the other side of the yard and take look at the other apple tree so this apple tree was also started on january 1st 2016. it's basically the sibling of the one just showed you this is the tree that started flowering on only its 27th month and we actually were able to harvest some fruits and they were crab apple size but not crab apple tasting they were pretty sweet the second year it actually set some more fruit they got little bit bigger like said in the last update and definitely thought maybe we're well on our way to maybe getting something bigger than crab apples but last year the third year that it flowered once again we still had crabapple-sized apples and so i'm beginning to think that after three years of setting fruit and flowering that maybe this tree is just crab apple tree but that being said we've had to fight lot of fire blight every time we've had pollinators and so i'm doing this update little bit earlier than normal than last year now you'll recall that this tree actually had another branch here and chopped it off couple years ago and it's actually performed well other than the pest eating at the bark down below as mentioned the biggest problem has been the fire blight and the amount of pruning i've had to do which has been tough to make this tree put on any size because of all of the pest damage that it's received another problem have is do need to remove all these rocks about two foot diameter around this base so that can mulch here and allow the tree to draw more nutrients but definitely is struggling with all of the pests chewing at the bark here i've had this covered i've done everything can it has fought and survived and it's still pretty thick but think between the ground the fire blight and the animals eating the base this tree has just struggled but at the end of the day worst case can either graft to it or use it as cross pollinator for lot of the other apple trees that have so on this side of the yard have three more apple trees this apple tree right here is one that started on may 7 2016 and because it's still earlier mid april this one's just now starting to break its buds matter of fact it has been sparse the last couple years and think have some nutrient deficiencies over here because this tree takes forever to break its buds and even when it does it doesn't set full foliage on all of the branches and like said this side of the yard it seems like all three trees have similar issues with late breaking buds and just sparsity with the foliage so we have sister plant or sister tree to this tree it sits right next to it about seven feet away same thing like said late breaking buds sparsity on the branches no flowers yet doesn't look that healthy mean it's hard to tell right now until all of the leaves come in but you can just tell the way this one looks compared to the one on the other side of the yard just doesn't look as great hopefully it fills out hopefully it thickens up hopefully get the nutrients over here on this side of the yard solved over the next couple of months and yeah we'll see this final tree is nursery bot gala apple tree and other than couple of years ago getting one apple set we have not gotten anything and as you can see similar to the other two trees it just is so barren and so late breaking that know must have some type of deficiency if you guys are familiar with what's going on and it could help me out that would be great know apple trees can be very finicky and i'm having struggle with these three trees including getting squirrels munching at all of the bark as well including the bark down low as you can see anyway the jury's out on this scale apple tree don't know if i'm ever gonna get any real fruit from it or any of the fruit from any of the trees on this side of the yard we'll have to see speaking of this out of the yard my wife is actually super excited about having her own cut flower raised bed garden so i'm excited for her looks like she's got the green thumb too well think that's going to do it for today's apple tree update guys appreciate you that have been patient and waiting for me to do this it's been while it's been over 12 months since the last update do plan on updating my kiwi plants tomorrow as well as my avocado the pear trees and whatever else i've got going on over the next couple of weeks anyway hopefully you guys enjoyed today's apple tree update if you did i'd appreciate that thumbs up and as always happy gardening and thanks for watching