Hi Matt- Glad to help! The crab apple in the front yard sounds like it's your best bet for pollination. Bees can travel a good amount, but 6 blocks will be too far for reliable pollination. But, what I'm more worried about is the lack of sun. Apples really want full sun. You can grow them in less than full sun, but your crop will diminish. Once you get under 40-50% sun, I expect the tree to survive, but not to give you any apples... which sorta defeats the point. IÂm not even sure if the tree would survive under 20% sun. I learned this lesson the hard way. I started with trees in my back yard which only get about 60-70% sun. They have struggled in comparison with trees in full sun. This year, I cut down all the trees in my front yard to make a front yard orchard. No more shade problems for me. Actually, many people on this forum have issues with transplanting older fruit trees. The advice 90% of the time is "Start with a nice bare root tree and be patient. In 3 years, youÂll start to see fruit". There comes a point (depending on the site of the tree) where a tree never really recovers from the transplant. Instead, a new tree nearby will eventually surpass the transplanted tree. You can order a nice bare-root tree for only about $30. Now would probably still be a good time (if they still have your desired varieties in stock), but I wouldnÂt wait much longer. I get most of mine from "Adams County Nursery" or "Cummins Nursery" which is isn't too far from you. ACN has a better website. My advice would be for you to leave your trees where they are and see if they can do anything. In the meantime, start your new trees in a better location. I've only been doing this for about 3+ years, so if anyone else disagrees with my advice, please chime in! -Glenn

From what is available at local orchard PYOs, I think Mutsu, Jonnagold, and Honeycrisp are the best (honorable mention for Macoun). I can't find Goldrush or Golden Russet russet at PYO, but they are a full level better than the above apples. Just recently I discovered Lady Alice in the grocery store and it is a very good winter apple- up there with Pink Lady. The best had a brix of ~17 and reminded me of a Fuji (a good one, not the bland ones), mixed with a Orleans Reinette (which I've only had one batch of, but were very good), with a bit of Braeburn thrown in. I'm surprised 2 people both liked Cortland the best. I've always found it OK, but not great- 2nd among the "mac" types, after Macoun. It does get pretty good size and has decent sweetness. It's worth mentioning that I found Zestar at a farmer's market last summer (8/15) and it was head and shoulders above the other early apples. I'm looking forward to comparing it to William's Pride and possibly Akane this year. The WP just started opening its blossoms today, putting it as one of my early bloomers. Only my Red Boskoop is clearly earlier, as it has been blooming for 3-4 days and appears almost half way done.

Harvestman, I think you're correct about the sunlight factor as well. We've had persistent gloom here, very few actual sunny hours -- I'd bet something like 20% of normal since spring began if I had to take a guess. I've noticed that many plants seem very "wimpy" compared to normal. They're lush in a sense because of all of the water, but also rather "spindly" and kind of peaked looking -- things just don't look happy. I haven't gotten to spray at all yet, not once. Luckily, I have seen almost no trace of PC, which is the major early pest for me. They promise me that the rain will stop after the warm front comes through, which as I speak is plowing through West Michigan in the form of a strong MCS (Mesoscale Convective System) with numerous tornado, severe thunderstorm, and flash flood warmings. So, if it moves through here this evening and actually doesn't rain tomorrow, I will spray.

I take it those branches without leaves are the same branches that had no leaves last year? I think those branches are dead... if you scrape a bit of bark off and under the bark is brown instead of green, or if you bend one of those branches and it snaps rather than flexes, then those branches are dead and you might as well prune them off. It looks to me like your tree had a hard transplant and is still trying to get established. But it is alive and the growth that is there seems healthy, so prune off any dead branches and let the tree fill out a bit before worrying about its form. I suspect it will come on strong later this year and next year should be vigorous. As its health picks up, expect it to put some new leaves directly out of the main trunk -- leave these on as they will become new branches to replace the branches that have died.