Hello, When we bought our home 4 years ago, it had 3 apple trees. Two have died already and the last one seems to be showing signs of the same thing. The bark splits open vertically on the trunk, which has happened this year with our final tree. The other trees did this. I believe both dead trees had one or two years of small dwindling crops, which is what tipped us off to them not being healthy. And then after a winter, they just didn't come back. My husband literally pulled them over and out of the ground by hand, so it seemed as though there was rot or decay on the top of the root ball. It would snap off right at or below ground level. One of the two trees' root systems is now shooting up new shoots, so apparently the whole root system was not killed. That tree died two years ago. Do you have any idea what this is and if there is any way to fight it? The last remaining apple tree is our best producer, and I would be sad to lose it. The damage that you can see on the base of the tree is from rabbits last winter (thus the wire around it) and is unrelated to the problem. The split on the trunk is our only current indicator of a problem. As of now, the base of the trunk is still very strong and firmly rooted in the ground. We also have a lot of ants on our property. I don't know that they are harmful, but thought I'd throw it out there in case they have anything to do with this. Thank you!