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'Kidd's Orange Red' Apple Disease? Canker? Help!
HerbyDan
Posts: 6
Hello, Gardener's World forum! First time poster here.
We planted two young apple trees about 6 weeks ago into our garden. On purchase, the trees appeared perfectly healthy with not obvious disfigurements on any branches.
They are on a very open site with full sun and plenty of airflow. We have many other large crab apple trees growing here and they've been fine for several decades. Our soil is a half-way house between chalky clay and loam, and the trees were watered in well with good drainage. The growth after planting was very promising with plenty of new leaves and flower buds emerging.
However, about a week ago, we noticed some discoloured patches on the branches (images attached). Orange bark appears to be peeling away, and the stem beneath is appears almost black. Flower buds close to the affected areas are also suffering and dropping off. The disease is present on both trees. I want to say that it's frost damage (but that's probably me being optimistic!)
I've searched online for similar disease symptoms and I can't find a exact match. Instinct tells me to cut off the affected branches (which is almost all of them!), but I'm not sure.
Any advice on identifying this disease and potential treatments would be greatly appreciated!!
(Thank you for reading! - Dan 
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@BobTheGardener are you about? anyone else?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.