I've never seen a crabapple with thorns. Are these flowering crabs, or trees that are good for jelly? Nothing much beats crabapple jelly. I'd never cut a tree that produces good fruit for jelly. The jelly is great with meat on in cream sauces.
Im not talking about thorns (maybe someone else is) but the ones I have encountered are prickly as could be due to small grabby branches on them, almost to the point of being hairy.
I'll get some shots of it possibly this weekend, to get a more accurate idea to what it is, besides annoying to mow around
Crabapples have lots of small twigs that are similar to thorns, but not sharp on the ends. Hawthorns have actual thorns, but are otherwise similar to crabapples. Both have flowers in spring and small apple-like fruit. Both are often planted as ornamental trees. The wood from both would be very similar to apple wood.
If you're with the thought of saving the trees, could you just prune the lower limbs up so you're safer while mowing? Don't know if the size of the tree will allow this or not.
Good point. My mother has about 8 fairly mature ones. Each year we prune them so it's easy to mow. Great wood for burning too. Have been using some over the last week.
A healthy crabapple will respond well to a severe pruning, done properly at the right time. Great suggestion.
They're on the edge of the lawn line down back, not really ornamental they're actually rather fugly. I've pruned a few times but the higher limbs are growing downward so best bet is lay em down and cut up
