My apple tree has fallen down!

looksee

As title, my Bramley apple tree has fallen over. It has loads of fruit which usually would have dropped by now but evidently its a bit slow, and the weight and the dry ground (the ground there is very light and dry) has resulted in the collapse. The hole is a big space that is very dry. It isn't showing any signs of wilting, it can only have fallen in the last maybe 48 hours. Its about 25 years old.

So what to do. My thinking is to fill in the hole with soil and compost etc and lots of water. A good part of the trunk is completely on the ground, then you can see in the bottom pic it lifts a bit. It was fairly lopsided anyway, but too established to do anything about it.

The branch in the centre, top pic, at about 45 degrees was vertical. If I cut off most of the branches that are lying on the ground and left any more-or-less now vertical branches would that be a good idea? Should I leave it till the autumn to cut it back? Any thoughts?

FrancieBrady

Anything to be said for getting a small digger in and carefully standing it up again, securing and then trimming and reducing weight in the autumn?
I think it was Clarkson's Farm that this was done on a far bigger tree and it worked. Needs to be done quickly I think with no more damage to the root system as possible.

looksee

I considered that briefly, but decided against it. Its pretty big and I doubt I could make it stay upright long enough to establish itself. I simply would not have the strength to put in the kind of supports needed and finding someone to do it isn't likely.

We have put lots of water into the hole and have taken off the branches that are low to the ground. It had a very significant lean before it fell, so there are a number of branches that have already sent up more or less vertical side shoots. I will fill up the hole with compost and soil and see how it goes.

standardg60

Just use soil rather than compost to cover over the roots. It should be fine and will adjust to it's new position.

looksee

We cut off about half a dozen big branches that were lying on the ground and took all the apples off. Some are very small but most are edible, just had some stewed and they were very nice. I'd say this is about half of what is on the tree, no wonder it fell down!