Apple trees cracking

Got these apple trees as bare root 2 years ago, haven't produced yet.

1st year they looked great, but this late summer/fall they seed to be struggling a bit. The leaves were turning brown and staying on the tree
(maybe from lack of water or poor soil).

Just a few days ago I realized the wood along the trunk and the branches was splitting open. I did not see this 2 months ago, but I could have missed it.

Could it have anything to do with the unseasonably warm weather where I live (there hasn't really been consistent hard frost yet, and no frost for a while). Is there anything I should do to try and help them?

Thanks

The photos of the trunks are out of focus, can you try to take them again with a plain sheet of cardboard behind them so that we can see the damage

No problem. I'll have to wait till it's light out though

Here are the pictures. Sorry I forgot to post them 😅

My guess is that your trees might have sunburn (AKA southwest injury). This is an extremely common problem on young fruits trees . This problem can be prevented by painting the trunks of the young trees from one inch below the soil line up to the first branch or two with white latex paint. I try to do this during a dry spell in late winter or early spring. But before painting your trees, it might be a good idea to remove any loose bark and prune off any side branches that are heavily damaged first and check them for any signs of fungus or insect/borer tunnels. Hopefully, you won't see these other problems and your trees will have enough healthy bark to survive.  

Here's Gardener Scott with an excellent video about sunburn on trees and that also explains about sun scald, which is a type of sun damage that can occur in the winter. Scott uses an product called IV Organic, which is probably a better all-around protection for your trees than regular latex paint because of the botanical oils in it repel rodents and bugs:



Good luck!

I'd like to add an agreement to that post. We experience this quite often this time of year in NE Florida. I'm right on the ocean on an island where for example it is 72° as we speak but is expected 34 in a few days.

What happens is the trees that go truly dormant are deciduous and when the leaves drop the trunk is now exposed to that warm sunlight. The phloem which transports the sugars and organic compounds warms up on the south facing side exposed to that sun. Which then can cause a rapid expansion from frost and the layer between the inner and outer bark splits.

I have a method of whitewash of the old Greek style Lime Wash mixed with about 1/4c white latex paint. Go ahead and stack some functions and add 1tsp of essential oil to help eliminate any of those borers that won't want to penetrate the layer of oil+paint.

Good luck!