Does anyone have advise to share on dealing with sucker growth on crabapples?
Each year mine and my neighbor's tree seem to produce an abundance of sucker growth along the trunk and branches. I've been told to just prune them off but it seems that they just keep coming back. The trees are otherwise healthy (plenty of water, no physical damage or disease/insect). Any ideas?? Thanks!
Welcome to the Forestry Forum. Hope you enjoy the site, as so many of us do.
My understanding is to keep cutting the suckers back, unless there is one or two that you want to train to become a limb.
They will always keep coming back. The tree wants to fill in that open spot with leaves - it is just their nature to want to try to do that. :)
Yup, I've been cutting the suckers off the one in our front yard for 20 years. :)
As long as the stem is getting sunlight down there, it'll keep trying to grow branches there. Like the others said, it's just going to have to be a yearly ritual if you don't want them there.
Welcome to the forum,mitreeplanter.I'm glad you found us.
Thanks all! Just didn't know if it was an indication that the tree was on its last legs i'd be doing more harm than good by removing them.
When sunlight hits the bole on a regular basis, the buds located in the bark are stimulated to grow. If it is perpetually shady, they remain dormant. It is the tree's survival mechanism to ensure that if the canopy opens up, it will attempt to colonize the extra space with new shoots and leaves in the war of competition and survival. There is a hormone that is involved that controls this reaction. This hormone is a growth regulator. The sunlight breaks down or affects the hormone controlling the tree's response.
I believe it is the same hormone, auxin, that is involved when a tree is bent out of verticle. The auxin collects on the underside of the bole (there the sunlight cannot break it down because it is shielded from the sun) and stimulates more cambial growth on the lower side, causing the tree to bend back to verticle (creating sweep :-\). This is probably more than you wanted to know ::).
Not more than I wanted, but more than I'm sure to remember :) Think I'll go sharpen the pruners now.
Great help!
Wow, WDH. My tree physiology course was only 4 years ago, and I'd already forgotten all of that stuff :D.
Dodgey Loner,
I had a brilliant instructor by the name of Dr. Paul who allowed all tests to be open book, even open society. We could discuss the questions on some tests in open class. It made for a wild and fun course.
His logic was that he was there to teach us how to find the information, not to make us memorize the occupation.
As long as you know how and where to find that stuff you forget, you'll be alright. :)
Quote from: Dodgy Loner on July 12, 2007, 01:33:01 PM
Wow, WDH. My tree physiology course was only 4 years ago, and I'd already forgotten all of that stuff :D.
That course was so interesting to me 30 years ago that it sunk in and I never forgot about auxin, cytokinen, and gibberillin (probably miss-spelled). It helped me understand why things worked like they do. It is easier to remember the interesting stuff.
I bet you never forget many tree scientific names :D.
Tom, the Forestry Forum has turned me into an expert at looking up stuff I know I learned but can't quite remember ;D.
WDH, my tree physiology course was at 8 AM, nothing short of divine intervention could have made that class interesting to me that early in the morning :-[ :D.
I had Dr. Claude Brown, a pioneer in clonal development. He produced a pretty good tree book too ;D.
Yep, I have a copy or two of his book laying around the office :P
Tre-Hold RTU / Mix and apply with brush or sprayer to cuts after pruning basal root suckers
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/PMH/PMH-COM-woody-ornamentals.pdf
What mitreeplanter describes are actually epicormic shoots along the trunk and branches, not root or basal sprouts. I don't think Tre-Hold RTO will work on epicormic branches (at least, it's not recommended for that use).
CONTROL OF WATERSPROUTS AROUND PRUNING CUTS
Dormant
Tre Hold RTU (NAA)
1.5% (15,000 ppm)
Ready-to-use product
Mix NAA with 2 pt latex paint / gal and apply any time after dormant pruning but before growth begins in spring. Apply with paint brush or cloth pad to thoroughly coat exposed wood and edges of bark around pruning cuts.
CONTROL OF ROOTSUCKERS
Dormant or 6-12" Sucker height
Tre Hold RTU (NAA)
1.5% (15,000 ppm)
Ready-to-use product
(Do not dilute)
Apply during dormant season after pruning existing suckers and before resprouting or apply when new sprouts are 6–12" high. Thorough wetting of stubs or new sprouts is essential.
http://ipmguidelines.org/TreeFruit/CH11/default.asp
also: http://ipm.osu.edu/fruit/icm12.htm
http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu/Horticulture/other.html