[Schubunny]

I was wondering if anyone could help me.

When I got my allotment four years ago there was already a few trees on it (far too close together IMO). One is an apple tree and I suspect it was put in at an angle as a cordon, however in the year or two between the previous owner being well enough to keep on top of his plot and me getting it it obviously grew and got a bit out of hand. I'm not at all knowledgeable on fruit, neither is my father so we're muddling along.

This year, for the second year running once it's got laden with fruit it's again fallen over, we tried last year to stabilise it with three stakes and three ties but they broke recently and once again the apple tree is in the rhubarb! We've propped it up for the time being but we're stumped (no pun intended) as to how to proceed. The fruit on it was lovely last year, not had any yet this year but I've taken a bit of a harvest from it today in the hopes it will reduce some of the weight on the poor tree! The fruit was (and is this year too) mottled on the skin but inside was nice.

My dad suggested that what may be making it worse is maybe it's searching for light due to the other trees being so close. I'm going to prune the cherry tree nearby next time I go up and then the plum tree which is also close by once it's fruited. There is also a gooseberry nearby which we don't eat and isn't very productive so I'm planning on getting that out too, but I'd really like to try and save the apple tree.

I'm also not sure if it's self-fertile or not and as my plot neighbour has cut down his (beautiful and very productive) apple tree this year so I'm not even sure if it will fruit next year!

This is it October last year before we added additional stakes. As you can see it's a bit of a mess, poor thing!

[Nobbie]

I think you need something fairly solid to support it properly. You could try a 24" Metapost sunk into the ground with a 4*4" 6' fence post. Whack it in the opposite side to the leaning tree and at a slight angle away. You can then gradually start to pull the tree upright in stages once the fruit is off.

[Headgardener22]

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but is it really worth trying to save it? If it falls over that easily, it could well be that it hasn't got a decent root structure and so is going to keep falling down.

An alternative could be to wait until its dormant (winter) and then replant it as you would a bare rooted tree, putting in proper supports and starting again.