I need advice, please help...?

Question

I need to know if it is possible to take a clipping of a Crab-Apple Tree (type unknown) and transplant it elsewhere, if needed. The original tree is old and is somewhat of a family heirloom and seems to be struggling, and I hope to keep some "branch" of it alive, maybe elsewhere. Any and all suggestions would be helpful. This tree represents family and the generations family becomes, and needs to be saved and shared. Thank-you for your suggestions.

Answer 1

I have successfully rooted crabapple cuttings commercially. It may be difficult at home.
We used cuttings of actively growing, vigorous shoots. You can tell they are actively growing if on close examination of the terminal tips you see small new leaves and not a set bud. We pinched out the tiniest part of the growing tip, and made the cuttings about 4" long from the tip end. Leave three larger or four smaller leaves attached and strip the leaf off the fourth or fifth node down from the tip. If you wound the stem by having a small strip of bark come off with the leaf this is OK and some even think good. Make your bottom stem cut below that last node and about 1/2" longer. We then dipped the cut end into rooting hormone (a preparation containing IBA, also known as indolebutyric acid) and stuck it into a small pot of well drained soilless media and put it under mist. Stick more cuttings than you think you need -- you will never get 100%.
The challenge for the home gardener is you do not usually have a mist propagation system set up in your back yard. The idea of a mist system is that coating the leaf surface frequently with water prevents the water that is inside the leaf from evaporating, during the time that the cutting is unable to suck up enough water to hydrate itself, due to the absence of functional roots. A typical mist system relies on a timer that turns the water on and off as much as every 4 minutes. Ask yourself, how else could you create enough humidity around the cuttings to keep the leaf from wilting? If you try the rooting hormone in some sort of lightweight potting soil, perhaps you could keep the soil wet enough to humidify the cuttings if you tried keeping them covered in a plastic bag, or terrarium style. I don't know exactly if this will work. Maybe if you take more leaves off it would evaporate less. Leave at least one on so the thing can photosynthesize? Basically you do not want the cutting to wilt!
I notice in some of the other answers you got that people were describing what sounds like either seedlings coming up or suckers from the root. Root suckers usually indicate that the original plant was budded or grafted onto a different rootstock. If this is the case, propagation of the sucker will result in a clone of the rootstock and not the original variety. Seedlings in some cases come true to the original and some do not.
Another thought I had is something called layering. I wonder, if you did not actually remove the cutting all the way from the tree, if the original mother plant could hydrate it for you. This is a preferred method to propagate some kinds of plants but I dont know if it will work on crabapples. How to do it is that you wound the stem where you want the roots to form, like cut through it half way or take the bark off ON ONE SIDE only. Dust it with rooting hormone, wrap some damp peatmoss around the whole thing, and cover that with plastic (rubberbands? string?) to keep the peatmoss constantly damp. In this scenario the mother plant keeps the stem alive through the uncut bark side while the rooting hormone encourages formation of roots at the cut. Again, I would choose actively growing, juicy looking candidates. The timing of when you try this can be important too. I had good results rooting crabs from softwood cuttings in the month of June in Michigan.
Yet another method that might work is what they call Hardwood cuttings. This is done by harvesting cuttings in late fall or early winter. The 4-6" cuttings are treated with the IBA, bundled together and placed in damp packing material--like peatmoss--and left standing up, with bottom heat (65-70 degrees) and tops exposed to the cool air. Reportedly this takes about 4 weeks but is described as "difficult" meaning not a good percentage actually root. I haven't tried it.
Good luck to you if you actually want to try any of this. If your original tree is in poor health it may not yield any wood good enough to put on a root. Most crabapples are propagated by budding or grafting, and for many years they have doing this; so chances are that was how your original tree started its life. If you know what the name of it is, you could conceivably just go out and buy another knowing that the new ones are also clones of the original tree that was the parent of the one you have. Not nearly so meaningful but maybe more practical. Have fun with it!

Answer 2

A crab-apple tree should be no different than any other tree. Look for young roots or start small branches in water untill a root starts.

Answer 3

I have never rooted this type of tree. Of course, that doesn't mean it cannot be done with the traditional rooting method, spring planting, and lots of water. Most of the time, crabapples have a number of new trees shoot up each spring. You might transplant one of them from the mother tree. You could also harvest and plant the fruits.

I love crabapples! Good luck!

Answer 4

Get several clippings and dip the cut ends in root tone. It stimulates root growth. Just follow the directions on the package. If you do it right, you may have enough trees growing to give one to everyone in the family! Good luck!

Answer 5

There is a wonderful book for plant propagation written by Michael Dirr. My suggestion is to purchase this book and it will tell you exactly what time of year and how to propagate your family crabapple. I would look up Mr. Dirr, he might even have a website, also if you have a county extension office of agriculture or a university close to you that has a horticulture program that should help.

Answer 6

take a branch and put it in water. After a week or so it should start to grow roots. If not try again. Sometimes the first starter doesnt take. Try several at once.

Answer 7

There should be plants coming up under the old tree.Look for small shoots and dig them up I have several Crabapple trees and there are always shoots under the trees

Answer 8

sure you can but they generaly spread their slves