Apple tree disease identification

[olirichards]

Hi friendly people,

I'm new to arboriculture, only having grown trees for a few years. This year I bought myself a couple of 2-year old apple trees and planted them. Both trees seem to be doing well but have developed what looks like different problems. I can't find out what they are so I thought I'd post photos and see if anyone could help me.

 

The first tree has brown spots on quite a large number of leaves.

 

The second tree has problems only at the ends of branches. The leaves curl up and turn odd - it doesn't happen to any of the other leaves which all look healthy.

 

Any clues would be brilliant!

thanks,

Oli

[Peasgood]

Spots are Cox Spot, curls are rosy aphid.

Uncurl the leaves and you will find aphids in there. trat with bug spray of some sort.

Cox Spot has no treatment as such but a good foliar feed is in order. The leaves often fall off if it gets bad enough.

[Pinkfoot]

If you have Cox spot , you have a venereal disease .

[olirichards]

Thanks a lot Peasgood, that's fantastically helpful. And, er, you too Pinkfoot!

[peatff]

You'll probably notice bees going into the curled leaves after the honeydew secreted by the aphids, we have it on our tree. I usually just cut the infected part off and throw it in the bin.

[Pinkfoot]

There is another creature that curls up apple leaves , a little pink maggot , and it is really hard to deal with on a large scale . It also does the same to Gleditsia leaves and stops them growing. Poxy creatures.

[Peasgood]

There is another creature that curls up apple leaves , a little pink maggot , and it is really hard to deal with on a large scale . It also does the same to Gleditsia leaves and stops them growing. Poxy creatures.

 

Apple leaf midge. It curls the leaf in the opposite direction to rosy apple aphid.

Got loads of it in my orchards where it doesn't bother me and it is reducing a lot as natural predators are building up.

Lot more of a problem in nursery stock areas where they can have a significant effect on a young tree. Sprayed mine this week.

Apple leaf midge (Dasineura mali (Keiffer)) - Apple Best Practice Guide

[Pinkfoot]

Thank you mate. Dursban works if you spray before the curling starts .

[Peasgood]

Not had any success with Dursban on them, I think ours are resistant to it. A lot of things are.

I would use Decis or similar instead but that will kill all your natural predators as well.

In the orchard I just accept it is there, any chemical good enough to kill them would do me much more harm than good by wiping out natural predators.

My new trees are a different story though. I haven't seen any fresh curling this week so I am hoping I got them.

[Pinkfoot]

If they would leave the lead alone , it would not matter too much.

I think we use Decis now too.