Lisa: I can't answer all your questions now but... in retrospect, you could have simply covered the pot completely under a heap of mulch for the winter making sure the soil never dried out in the pot. Nurseries do this all the time. Getting a potted tree through the summer takes more work as you have to monitor it for water far more frequently than through the Fall and Winter. You can nip the flowers or wait until the bloom is over and remove any fruit that form. Yes, an apple can form for every flower as long as it is pollinated, not all fruit initially formed will necessarily make it to full size though. Apple trees go through "June drop" normally during which time they will shed excess (according to the tree) fruit. Tou are not alone, we all prefer to do the least spraying, after all there are more entertaining things in life to do -:)

I'm going to start moving the trees tomorrow and hopefully finish up Saturday. I live pretty much on the line of zones 6b and 7a. I live in Tennessee about 20 miles north of the Alabama line. I'm not sure exactly what type of soil I have, but I will say this: Its not sandy at all. Its not bright red like when I lived in Alabama. Its brown and rich looking. Some areas of the yard I have found places with clay. There is also a lot of limestone under ground around here. Oh! and the rocks are everywhere!! As far as how I'm going to do it: I have a book thats a month to month guide for Tennessee. It said to move a tree, start in September and prune the roots. To prune the roots I went up the trunk 6 inches and measured the diameter. I then multiplied that number by 12 inches. That means that if a trunk is two inches in diameter (most of the ones I'm moving are) I need to keep at least 24 inches of the root ball. I then used a spade and went around the tree inserting it approximately a foot into the soil. I did this back in September. It said to move the trees in December. (I'm a little behind) It then said to water the tree throughly 2-3 days before moving. We have had several days of rain so thats ok. Then it says to dig a hole thats 1/2 to 2/3 deep as the root ball is wide. The digging will be the HARD part!! I asked about the water because all the book says is to water throughly after moving. I assumed that, but I was wondering how much to water weeks and months after the move. I'll use your 2nd knuckle trick and see how that goes. Again, thank you for the tip. I actually gogled it for a while and never got any straight answers, and thats why I posted here. There always seems to be pretty good advice on this forum. I moved three other trees last year in March. One was about 20 feet by 3 inches, and the other two maybe 12-15 feet. I had no idea how to do it. I didn't pre-trim the roots. The leaves came out about two weeks after the move. I cut a lot of roots off and left no soil around them. Amazingly all three lived!!! I had no idea how much to water them so I poured one gallon on each tree every day. Two were sycamores and one was an ash. I don't think they had as many leaves on them last summer as they should have but it was close. I read that it takes about a year of recovery for every inch of diameter of the tree. This year they should do better, and next year they should be back to normal. I hope they will come back! Not much longer and I'll find out.

oh for crying out loud ... it has been one of the hottest ... driest summers in a long time ... trust me.. ALL THE TREES ARE GOING TO DUMP LEAVES FAST.. AND EARLY ... and not perform to standard .. colorwise ... listen to me.. its OCTOBER!!! ... your tree looks GREAT for a recent transplant ... and that sums it up ... water late into fall IF the soil dries out ... and otherwise.. congrats ... YOU DID WELL ... good??? now QUIT WORRYING ABOUT IT ... !!!! ken ps: take some pix after the leaves fall off.. i think some interior pruning would really help make that tree more stable for the long run...

Randy, What a job you'll have cutting up all that wood! Just think, though, of all the BTUs it will produce in the cold winter months. Surprisingly, we haven't lost any trees here that I know of, but the rain pretty much stopped here in mid-July and all we've had since then is little showers here and there with NO heavy rainfall. If all you lose is one tree, that's not too bad considering how high the creek got and how long everything stayed waterlogged. I have noticed a lot of the native persimmons here that have tons of fruit dropped all their leaves in late August to early September. The persimmons that didn't have fruit still have all their leaves. I'm guessing the female trees aborted their leaves due to the dryness, as did many other trees here, but I would have expected them to abort some of the fruit too. Our pecan trees have a huge crop, so much so that limbs are breaking. Without rain for the last couple of months, though, I think the nuts may not fill out well. Dawn