Ceighmey

To my knowledge, you can't really prevent this totally. It's just the nature of the , er..beast.

Removing said suckers roughly mid-Summer can slow down their recurrence. Trees are less inclined to initiate new stems during this period, as opposed to, say, early Spring.

Not a complete solution by any means, but it can help.

+oM

I understand Tom's point about the suckers not regrowing as readily in mid-Summer, but I'm not sure that that doesn't apply more to general pruning than to sucker removal. I've heard a number of sources claim that early removal (as soon as the suckers are noticed) is best to reduce regrowth. I'm not sure which answer is best, but, personally, I think I would remove them early.

Pulling the suckers off, as opposed to cutting them, should reduce the tree's desire to regrow more suckers.

There are chemical, such as Sucker-Stopper, that may also help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sucker-Stopper

I've used sucker-stopper before and it's effect is limited at best. Maybe delaying the suckers for another month or so. It's quite expensive also. Personally I think the growers need to be grafting their Crabapples on a better root stock which isn't so aggressive that it's apt to sucker so much. There are some root stocks being used which don't sucker nearly as much, or much at all and you do see them floating around, but they still don't seem to be the norm yet. I've got a neighbor down the road from me who hasn't done anything about their Crabapple's root suckers for a couple of years now and many of the suckers are nearly as tall as the tree.

Sucker Stopper is expensive, but it seems to work for me, especially later in the growing season. You'll also have to zap the suckers a few times before they die.

It also helps not to prune your crabapple too heavily. Remove a major branch or two, and you'll have a lot more suckers popping up.

I love my crabapples, but I'll never plant another because the suckers ruin my nearby flowerbeds.

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