Question
Hi:
I planted two Royalty Crabapple trees in my backyard along with a weeping Crabapple (not sure of name).

The weeping crabapple and one of the Royalty crabapple trees has bloomed but very little. The other one looks dead. All three have Eastern Tent Caterpillar tents, the dead looking one has a lot of it. I started removing the tents as soon as I saw them but there are still some webs(?) on the dead looking tree.

Please tell me:
1. How do I know if the dead looking royalty crabapple tree is alive or not?

2. Why are my other two trees (the live Royalty and the weeping) so weak looking and with limited blooms?

3. What can I do to improve the health of my tree (two?)trees?

Thank you for your help.

Answer
The caterpillars more than likely ate the foliage off the trees. Start at or near the end of a branch and scrape a small bit of bark off and if the color under the bark is green the branch is still alive and will put on new leaves.  IF the color under the bark is not green --brown the branch is dead at this point on the branch. IF brown continue down the branch scraping at intervals until you find green or reach the main stem. I would expect that the branches are still green and will leaf out again.  

IF there are still caterpillars in the remaining webs I would either get the webs down or spray the tree and webs with an insecticide like Orthene.

When you see new growth I would fertilize with 10-10-10 fertilizer at the rate of 1 lb per inch of trunk diameter scattered around the tree and watered in good. Fertilize just before it rains and you will not have to water it in. This will increase the health of the tree. Wait until you see green leaves so you won't be fertilizing a dead tree.