Treed question about two of our trees

[emjacobs]

treedimensional

We have a cherry tree that broke off last year. It was 2 years old when it broke, we had a strong wind. It's now about 18" tall and looks healthy just short.

Second tree is a dwarf apple, not sure of the specific type. Now three years old. It hasn't really grown at all, never produced fruit and has limited leaves or buds on it.
What would you do with these two?

[treedimensional]

I would remove all the grass within a 2' radius of the trunk. Better yet, 3'; but 2 should be enough. There should not be any grass growing where you're trying to establish something else.
Whenever I see a 'failure to thrive' tree, I always want to find out why. Part of my investigation would be excavation of the roots. In the absence of obvious disease or insect infestations, that's usually where the problem lies. In the failure to thrive apple, there are likely to be root problems such as suffocation or strangulation. It's common.

[emjacobs]

I'll take on the grass, we cleared out ~2' last year and it fills in so quick :/ Silkworms are annoyingly common here, I haven't seen any on the apple but I pulled some off of the evergreens along the road.

[emjacobs]

Would you do anything with the cherry? Just let it go and see what happens? Am I just destined to have an 18" cherry bush now?

[treedimensional]

Apr 22, 2014 21:20:14 GMT -5 emjacobs said:

Would you do anything with the cherry? Just let it go and see what happens? Am I just destined to have an 18" cherry bush now?

No. It will send up a new leader, or several leaders. Your job is to facilitate that. You can bend a limb up and stake it in place to create a leader, or just select one that grows naturally, and prune back the others. Let me know if you need further help with that.