Almost 15 years ago my mother ordered this tree from a mail flyer. It was dubbed the "Dinner Plate" apple tree because its apples supposedly got as big as dinner plates. I had a Granny Smith apple tree that seemed to do farely well even though it's really too hot here for apple trees, so I planted it for her but in my yard. It has never had blooms or any semblance of them and, consequently, never had any fruit. The tree is currently about 7- to 8 ft. tall if you don't count the one shoot in the pic that has shot up to about 9 feet or more. It's approximately 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 ft. in diameter and it doesn't have one single "trunk." There seems to be many shoots coming up from the ground all close knit. It has been a very slow growing tree. The leaves and branches look very much like those of my Granny Smith apple tree so I tend to think it's some form of apple but I could be wrong. Any ideas what this is REALLY is?
Yes, if I didn't know the background on this specimen* I would assume it was a rootstock that grew up after the scion died or was cut down for other reasons (next I would look for an old stump to to check this assumption) or a pippin (spontaneous seedling apple tree). Lack of flowering would be due to the plant not being mature enough yet to flower, if raised from seed. As old as it is, it probably isn't old enough. Since you've had it for years and it hasn't performed it would probably be just as well to take it out. A grafted plant would ordinarily be received from the supplier with some kind of training having taken place, even if very small and new likely to consist of a single section of rootstock with a single piece of budwood stuck into it. Apple trees raised from seed often vary widely in characteristics, if in fact a seedling if your shrub ever got around to fruiting before you gave up the fruit might not be like it was supposed to be anyway. A clump of whippy stems is certainly not going to produce huge apples, it wouldn't even be able to hold them up. The plant would first have to be pruned and trained into a tree shape, with much larger and stronger branches and a much bigger top than it has made so far. *Maybe it did, in fact come with the wonder apple grafted onto what you have ended up with and the wonder apple died, this not being noticed or being forgotten later
Ron, thanks so much for the info. The tree is from a plant. I don't remember whether any part of the tree died in the beginning. It may have. My memory sometimes doesn't make it to yesterday, much less 15 years ago. :) My Granny Smith tree didn't even take half as long to get to be a fairly large tree. It was producing fruit at about 6 to 8 years old. I guess I should just cut it down and dig it up. I'm getting tired of mowing around it. It's not "paying its way." :)
