I was able to save girdled trees by a couple of methods -- the first was to bury really deep after cutting some slits in the bark above the damage and rubbing rooting powder into it -- that did work on one tree, it rooted out from near/around the slits. Last year, I saved 3 girdled trees by grafting in new pieces of bark to reconnect the top and bottom, and it worked.

But I can't think of any way to save what you have there, other than turn it into scion wood, but its probably kind of dried out by now.

Probably just have to start over. Alas, I hate voles.

Ugh, I found two vole holes just this morning next to a five year old apple tree. Tomorrow I dig, add poison and carry on!

A friend of my in-laws has an orchard north of Grand Rapids and when he makes his rounds, he takes his vicious 8lb rat terriers along to do the hunting. From what he tells me they seek them out and kill them. Just a thought.

That's the result of pine vole damage and not the more common meadow vole. To grow apples on your site you may need to trap or poison them out in mid-fall. Pine voles are the worse and there's no saving a tree if all the roots are gone.

I don't know about your situation, but last spring I had the same problem. I had four trees totally cleaned off under the ground. There was no sound bark below ground level. I got some rootstocks. Did what is called "inarch" grafts, where you plant the roots next to the damaged tree, and graft the rootstock into the bark of the damaged tree. I am still not sure how it is possible, but all four of my trees survived, three of them even bore some fruit. It sort of makes me think that maybe there was still some sound roots somewhere, but it sure didn't look like it. Your best relief of the situation at present might just be vole elimination. This is a project I take seriously.
Ted

Ted, did you get any vigor out of last years growth? Bearing fruit is not necessarily a good sign- it is vegetative growth you need. If the trees weren't growing normally it would probably have been best to remove fruit.

I've never tried to save a tree damaged this way because I figured even if it was a success the labor and time lost (waiting for the tree to return to vigorous growth) wouldn't be worth the value of the tree but it is a great suggestion. Actually, I used this method to save a 100+ year old apple tree that was almost completely girdled, but that's different than loosing all the roots.

Actually, one of the trees was a Beni Shogun apple, which I recently pruned. There was very little wood that would qualify as good scion. I attributed this to the tree reaching maturity, but may have been related to the injury. Another was William's Pride which put out a few appreciable shoots, but nothing you would call vigorous. Another was a very small Pink Lady, which had no fruit, but is now very heavily spurred on all its little branches. The fourth was a Sweet 16 which also made little growth. These trees are all on dwarf roots, so I don't know how much growth to expect from them anyway. I am a relatively new fruit grower. By comparison, I have a Honeycrisp which had less growth than the other trees mentioned even though it had no damage. I hope this answers the question.
Ted

Thanks everybody so much! I've learnt a lot - mainly about the sharpness of pine voles' teeth. I recognise that it is 99.9% certain too late - but where can I get rootstock for the tree, and what rootstock, and any good youtube video that could walk me through the process? Also, should I plant the end result outside, or in a pot inside?

Ted - great news about your trees surviving.

Cheers, Paul

Highestwater:

I'd not try the inarching on a completely severed tree. There is no hope. That procedure is for a severely damaged tree growing in place with still good anchorage.

If the top is still green you might use it as scion on a whip and tongue graft. But the scion would still need to be green and moist, questionable after a month inside with no roots. Get a new tree and kill the voles next year and every year thereafter.