I've got an ~10 year old apple tree that appears to have died over the last month. There have been suckers growing from the base for years & I've always clipped them down. There are some growing currently. If I leave one, will it produce apples like the original tree or does it depend on if it's above/below the graft?
If above the graft union, they will be the same as the old tree, if below, then they will be whatever the rootstock produces. If its a 10 year old tree that died, and the suckers are coming from the base, they are probably rootstock.
At my old house, there were 4 stumps flush with the ground in the median strip when I bought the house in 1995. For years, I mowed the suckers when I mowed the lawn. Fortunately for them, that wasn't very often. Because they were still alive after more than a year, maybe years, of doing that.
My brother, who has a degree in horticulture, told me they looked like apple trees, and suggested I let them each grow a trunk. Some of them eventually fruited before I grafted them over to better varieties.