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apple tree disease
Julie_T
Posts: 3
can anyone tell me what disease my old apple tree has and how to treat / rescue it?
0
Posts
A number of diseases can cause leaves to turn brown and they're often fungal infections.
In your tree's case, it looks like a huge tangle of branches, and in all honesty, needs a serious pruning to create airflow so that fungal opportunists are less likely to thrive in the retained moisture levels and shade provided by so many overlapping branches and leaves.
It looks like the areas affected are blossom parts, so it's possibly blossom wilt. If it's further down, then it could be fireblight. Either way, it's important to prune away all the affected areas. Make sure your tools are cleaned thoroughly afterwards. Any fruits forming by those areas also need to be removed.
to give you an idea of how much you need to remove an old saying is that a bird should be able to fly through the tree easily, or you should be able to throw a golf ball through it without it hitting anything.
you can prune it now if you must, just don't remove more than 1/3 of the branches in one go, start with anything obviously dead and anything rubbing against each other, then you can prune for shape,
traditionally apple trees are pruned into a goblet shape (empty centre branches going up the outside) usually having only 4 or 5 main branches spaced around the tree at between waist and shoulder height.
be aware that pruned properly it will look remarkably bare with sparse branches
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Last edited: 16 June 2017 10:01:08
Thank you for the helpful replies. When is the best time of year to prune this back?
you can prune now or during winter, if it's really congested I would prune some out now (maybe diseased and rubbing branches) and then finish pruning during the winter
Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated!