Apples are pretty winter hardy …where are you located?

And yes, if the original tree was grafted, which most are, the shoots coming up from the roots will be it’s ‘rootstock.’ Actually, they’re a great resource to graft to because they’ve already got an established root system and store of energy. But, there are generally a lot of them, depending on how old the tree was.

I’ve done this for friends. After one years growth (this year), I’d do a whip & tongue graft the following Feb. or March to one or two of the shoots. Cut the others to the ground, and eventually let only one grafted shoot (the straightest/ strongest) become the new tree/ variety.

Actually, you can do some wild stuff, like ‘twining the shoots,’ or grafting multiple varieties (maybe four) then binding them together with grafts… I’ve done some of this stuff for ‘fun’ - it’s our kinda fun

So have some fun

Wow, thirty below I’ve never experienced that

One problem with the loss of the tree is that it’s ‘not there’ to feed the root system, so most of those roots will die. If you let it send up shoots, those shoots will at least help feed some energy back into the root system…

I’d let them grow this year, then choose the best couple shoots to graft onto next March. You may be able to ‘Bud graft’ to a ‘stocky one’ later this summer, but with that kind of cold, I doubt the newly grafted bud would survive the winter. You’d be safer placing some stored scion wood on top next spring.

We’ve a local commercial nursery near me (Carlton Plants) that specializes in apple trees for South Dakota. Once having given a tour to our HOS group the employee had to laugh at the fact we’d never heard of the apple varieties they were growing – because they were all ‘cold hardy’ varieties for the Northern States. So I guess it makes a difference.

Have neighbors also lost trees; what variety was yours; and any idea how old it was?