Crabapple Tree

New York city spring visitors will always have a photograph of the city's parks that are full of scented blooms of the crabapple tree. Native to the Northern Hemisphere, especially to the temperate regions of Europe, Asia and North America, the crab apple tree is a genus of 35 natural species, and over 500 cultivated species of small deciduous trees types or shrubs in the family Rosaceae. The crabapple tree scientific name is Malus, and is also known as wild apples or simply as crabs.

Crabapple Tree Information
One of the popular flowering tree types, crabapple trees can be grown as small trees or shrubs, they range in height of about 6 to 50 feet tall, their spread is dense, and depending upon the crab apple tree variety grown, can have a weeping, spreading, or a pyramidal shaped crown. Crabapple tree fruit and leaves are mostly insignificant, as the fruits are extremely sour and leaves not very showy. Crabapple fruit is used more for its juice extraction than as a raw fruit. The leaves are pale green, 3-10 cm long, alternately arranged with a serrated margin. What makes them ideal ornamental trees for landscaping are their flowers. Its five petaled white, pink or red blossoms that bloom every spring in clusters cover up the entire tree. Depending upon the crabapple tree varieties, the flowers may be single, semi-double and double. If it is the flowers that interest you, opt for a double petaled, they won't bear good fruiting.

Opt from popular crabapple tree varieties; Siberian crabapple, Japanese flowering crabapple, Sargent crabapple, etc. The crabapple tree does very well in rich, loamy, well drained soil and full sun. The soil should be enriched with organic matter. Avoid fertilizing the first year. Water it well during its establishment period, then water as per climatic need. In fact if your soil is well draining, then water the crabapple tree during droughts deeply every two weeks. Fertilize with a nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium based fertilizer just before the onset of bloom.

Crabapple Tree Pruning
There are no hard and fast rules to pruning a crabapple tree. However, done incorrectly it will damage the next years flower show. The crabapple tree should be pruned when young to build a strong structure and to shape the tree. Crabapple tree shoots new sprouts or suckers from the ground quite rapidly, to keep the tree in shape and also to ensure that the new suckers do not eat away into all the nutrients, remove all the suckers in time. Prune before spring or after the flowering season is over. If the tree has gotten too dense prune the center to facilitate sunlight and ventilation. Never prune in July, as flower buds for the next season begin to appear in July. Prune all dead, diseased and damaged branches. It is important to cross prune the branches, as the fully bloom branches become heavily laded, leading to breakage.

Crabapple Tree Disease
The crabapple is quite disease prone. Although, crabapple cultivated varieties are resistant to pest and diseases, they still do have varying degrees of susceptibility to disease. Diseases that can cause significant amount of damage to the tree are fire blight, leaf spot and apple scab. Fire blight is a bacterium that turns the branches black, and apple scab is a fungus that leaves black sooty spots on leaves, fruit and fruits, eventually killing the tree. Leaf spot and powdery mildew are other diseases that infect the crabapple tree. Specific insecticides and germicides are available for specific problems, but must be used in time.

Crabapple trees are relatively easy to grow, and with plenty of blossoms your tree will attract the best pollinating insects. So go ahead and plant this beauty, and enjoy the spring time.