Prairie Crabapple

Size, growth and what to expect

Prairie crabapple grows at a moderate pace, so our growth estimator gives it about a foot and a half a year. Garden trees reach 20 to 30 feet tall and as wide, while wild trees run 13 to 20 feet.

Deep pink buds open to fragrant white or pale pink flowers, about an inch and a half to two inches across, in April and May. The fruit is a hard, waxy apple about an inch across that ripens in September and October. It stays green or turns yellow, and its flesh is sour and bitter. At least 20 kinds of birds and mammals eat it, from bobwhite and ruffed grouse to foxes and deer.

Its range runs from Wisconsin and Minnesota to South Dakota, and south to Kentucky, Louisiana and Texas. It grows in prairies, open woods, thickets, pastures and stream banks. Apples as a group crop well every 2 to 4 years, but some Wisconsin stands of prairie crab bear well every year.

How to grow Prairie Crabapple

Prairie crabapple flowers best in full sun and takes part sun, but in shade its crown grows thin and scraggly. It prefers a moist, well-drained loam, yet it takes dry limestone and alkaline ground. Keep it well away from eastern red cedar, which carries cedar-apple rust. Set trees 20 feet apart, and keep each one 15 feet from a wall and 15 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Its deep roots make an older tree hard to move, so plant it young where it is to stay. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, half an inch deep. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for one to two months first. Sow early, because the seed sprouts poorly in hot weather.

Water weekly through the first summer, and in dry spells for the next two. Deer eat nearly every part of an apple tree, and rabbits and voles gnaw the bark, so keep a wire guard on each sapling for its first three or four years. Pull the root suckers if you want a single trunk. Prune in late winter, since spring cuts let in fire blight.

Its flowers are self-fertile, so a lone tree can set fruit. It is very susceptible to cedar-apple rust, and leaf diseases can strip the tree before fall. Reports on apple scab differ, from very resistant to severely affected. Fire blight, canker, borers and scale insects can also strike.