Apple tree help

[Rustington]

Our apple tree has started to look poorly again, more or less a year to the day.

Yesterday the tree looked healthy and full of blossom, today it’s very wilted in places, the leaves look frosty and dead.

 

Last year we put it down to woolly aphids. This year there are some, haven’t seen a great deal and have been scrubbing with methylated spirits as soon as they are discovered.

 

Would like to know what’s causing the tree to go like this and put a stop to it.

 

[openspaceman]

Blossom Wilt

[Rustington]

33 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Blossom Wilt

Best way of stopping it?

[openspaceman]

 Check out the RHS site. I had no success with mine but @Peasgood is the orchard man.

[Rustington]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

 Check out the RHS site. I had no success with mine but @Peasgood is the orchard man.

I did look there, not a great help.

[Peasgood]

I'd go with blossom wilt too but I have no answer beyond that.

[slack ma girdle]

I would start with blossom wilt, but check the curled leaves to see if anything in living there.

You will need to remove all infected growth, cutting back to healthy wood. This material either needs to be burnt or taken away from site.

I've had good success with a winter spray of Jays fluid diluted 50/50 with water.

[Rustington]

On 30/04/2025 at 07:48, slack ma girdle said:

I would start with blossom wilt, but check the curled leaves to see if anything in living there.

You will need to remove all infected growth, cutting back to healthy wood. This material either needs to be burnt or taken away from site.

I've had good success with a winter spray of Jays fluid diluted 50/50 with water.

This stuff?

 

[Stere]

 

 

Isn't  using this this some old wives tale like killing a tree with copper nails?

[sime42]

It's pretty toxic stuff I think, a bit like a slightly more friendly version of Creosote. (It smells lovely similarly!) So fungi probably don't like it, as well as the viruses and bacteria that it was developed to kill. I'm sure it's been reformulated for modern times, but still quite potent.