apple tree Unwell Apple Tree - Fungus?

[DaveC74]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for reading,

 

We have a small apple tree that's been in the middle of our garden for at least 60 years!  In recent years it hasn't been in good shape, quite a lot of small dead branches covered in this stuff pictured, now larger branches, sometimes showing just a couple of leaves on the end.  We've reached the point where there are no leaves or small branches in the lower half of the tree. Side note, unusually it hasn't grown any apples this year!

 

If anyone knows what this is - and even better what my best course of action might be to try to fix it we'd be very grateful.

 

Thanks a lot!

Dave C

 

p.s. I thought I'd branch out a little, turn over a new leaf and see if someone here can get to the roots of the problem!

[AJStrees]

Looks like lichen to me, if so that is generally a good sign on the fruit tree. Looks like your lawn goes right up to the roots of the tree. I Would cut out a mulch circle to the dripline of the tree, give the tree some feed and mulch and water it well. Avoid cutting the roots when you remove the turf. 

 

Otherwise it looks like its been pruned like a lollypop and there could well be canker and dead branches that need cutting out. You need to open the centre of the crown up and let air and light in to the tree if you want it to do well as a fruit tree. Fruit trees need regular correct pruning to keep them giving you new and healthy wood. 

 

Might be worth getting someone in that knows how to prune fruit trees. 

[Dan Maynard]

The lichen grows slowly, the branches you are seeing it on are dead and hence bark stops moving so they get colonised - in other words the lichen is a consequence of the branch being dead and not a cause.

 

I would agree the cause is the pruning pattern, branches are being shaded because there is no light below. I don't know who has been pruning the tree, sometimes the cause is a gardener who just keeps trimming the shape back to size, it ends up with growth pattern like a hedge with leaves on the outside and nothing in the middle.

 

I would say it's restorable but over a few years.

[DaveC74]

Wow, thanks for that folks, that's really useful.

 

I'm not going to be too critical of the person who pruned it before as it's a family member who has since passed away - as it's at my elderly mum's house what happens is subject to negotiation.

 

I'm going for a general balance of ....

 

1:) Thinning out the top quite a lot, especially in the middle

2:) Targetting branches that look like they'll rub against other branches or bend around mad angles

3:) Trying to largely leave healthier looking branches alone where possible.

4:) Not being too drastic - only so many branches, so it still looks like a tree.

 

It's been a very dry year (lawn seems to have hardly grown!) so whenever we do get rain I end up with buckets of water from our shed gutter, I give those to the apple tree.  I hope to put a mulch circle in, not full width but just a metre or so out - that's complicated too as there are about four parakeets buried under the tree!

 

Great stuff - much appreciated!

 

Dave C

[nepia]

Look for Stephen Hayes vids on Youtube; he's mildly entertaining as well as knowledgeable