Apple tree not looking so good

[Ricz_1]

Hello forum. First post

 

I have an established apple tree in my small back garden. Last year we got a good crop of fruit. Its dropped its blossom and started producing leaves in the last few weeks but there are quite a lot of dead and dryed out leaves at the end of it's newer spurs and branches.  See pics. 

 

After a bit of googling I'm wondering if this is fire blight? Or just the tree not getting enough water to it's roots?  The garden used to be turf and we recently paved it. I also cut off quite a lot of old and damaged wood in February, but I don't think so much that it would damage the tree. 

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

 

Many thanks, 

 

Richard. 

Edited May 14, 2024 by Ricz_1
posted too early

[openspaceman]

https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/blossom-wilt

 

@Peasgood is the expert

[Peasgood]

It does look more like fireblight than blossom rot to me.

[Ricz_1]

Thanks both for the replies.  

 

I'll try to prune off all the affected areas. Any other suggestions on how to deal with it? 

 

 

[Peasgood]

Cut it down and burn it would be my suggestion.

You should burn the bits you cut off at the very least really.

Disinfect whatever you use to cut it too.

[peds]

Gonna bump this one, with a different kind of unhealthy apple tree.

 

A previous customer just sent me these, his apple tree got eaten by Darragh (I did his spruce and sycamore, didn't touch the apple tree except mulching it with chip... I definitely didn't knock it over!). I've seen sideways apple trees still growing decades after they've fallen though, so I'm not writing it off just yet.

 

 

 

What I've recommended, IF he wants to try and preserve the tree, is pruning a bit of the oldest and densest growth from the crown, covering the exposed root plate still in the ground with soil/compost/chip, feeding it heavily in early spring, and pruning out any dead wood when (IF) the tree wakes up later in the spring.

 

I'm going to try and graft any good wood I can find onto some rootstocks I have spare, too, just for the hell of it.

 

The tree has sentimental value, it's a childhood home, so I think he'd like to try and keep it if reasonably possible. 

 

Anything else you'd recommend? 

[peds]

Wow, really?

I'm game to try it, but I'd say the best hopes for long-term survival are leaving it supine... the tree is right on the west coast, it's definitely got more storms in the future, whether it stays on the ground or is dragged upright again... I don't think it'd cope with another gust like the one that knocked it...

[Dan Maynard]

I guess as you move it back towards where it started you're getting more roots back in the ground. I reckon there's a happy medium which involves a stout length of oak trunk to hold it up, that would also stop it blowing back down.

[organic guy]

Load of decent sycamores got blown down round here 30 years ago. They pollarded them led down, dug out the hole for the roots, stood them up with a back hoe and filled back in.

Most survived and are still going now, or they were before last night!