Apple tree disease question?
t...@iantib.plus.com
I've recently (4 months ago now) bought a house that has (had) three
apple trees in the garden. One had been so badly pruned that it died
so i have cut it down. The other 2 look in a bad way due to bad
pruning I presume.
The have an old trunk and a few old branches then hundreds of very
spindly verticle shoots all heading upwards about 3 and 4 ft in
length.
I presume I need to re brune them to get it back in shape and under
control.
Each tree has a lot of rotten stumps and branches.
On one I have noticed that there is a cotton wool type substance on a
couple of branches in notches of branches.
On the other I found some very small white egg type things.
Both trees seem to have a lot of green algae type of stuff growing on
them that rubbs off easily onto your clothing.
Can anyone help me and tell me what to do for the best to stop these
two dying like the third one did.
Thank you for your time.
Victoria Clare
> Hi,
>
> I've recently (4 months ago now) bought a house that has (had) three
> apple trees in the garden. One had been so badly pruned that it died
> so i have cut it down. The other 2 look in a bad way due to bad
> pruning I presume.
(snip)
>
> Both trees seem to have a lot of green algae type of stuff growing on
> them that rubbs off easily onto your clothing.
That's apple trees! they seem to attract algae. No need to worry about
that. Likewise, apples can survive quite happily with small ferns growing
on the branches.
>
> Can anyone help me and tell me what to do for the best to stop these
> two dying like the third one did.
I don't know what the white cotton wool is - maybe someone else will - but
it sounds like a fungus to me, and is probably growing on the rotten wood
you mentioned.
It could be that the third one died because it was weakened by disease
before the pruning - apples are usually pretty tough: you can prune them
like a mad axe maniac and they come bouncing back.
Assuming that the other two are basically healthy, you may be able to get
them back in shape, though I don't like the sound of the many 'rotten
stumps and branches'.
Do you know for definite that these are good fruiting trees that are worth
making an extra effort for, or are they essential to the structure of the
garden? If not, and if they are that far gone, you might want to think
about replanting - that way you can choose exactly the trees you want. We
had a weedy Golden Wonder tree for many years, and it was never worthwhile.
To prune them you'll need to remove any rotten wood back to sound stuff,
and thin out the thin upward shoots so you have a framework for them to
grow. If the shoots are only 3-4 foot long, it may be only a year since
they were severely pruned, and they just haven't got their act back
together yet. It could be that next spring you'll see them really taking
off.
It also sounds like the trees could do with mulching, and if they are that
under the weather you could try not letting them fruit next year to build
up their strength a bit. If you prune them this winter, they may well not
fruit anyway.
I found this quite useful in a similar situation:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1150.html
Victoria Clare
--
Gardening high up in South East Cornwall
--
Martin Brown
t...@iantib.plus.com wrote:
> I've recently (4 months ago now) bought a house that has (had) three
> apple trees in the garden. One had been so badly pruned that it died
That is amazing. I have known apple trees survive chopping off at ground
level. And the rootstock can sometimes even come back from the taproot.
> The have an old trunk and a few old branches then hundreds of very
> spindly verticle shoots all heading upwards about 3 and 4 ft in length.
Keep the thickest and prune out all dead/diseased wood and crossing
branches. Any decent pruning book will show you how.
> Each tree has a lot of rotten stumps and branches.
>
> On one I have noticed that there is a cotton wool type substance on a
> couple of branches in notches of branches.
That will be woolly aphid. I have never found any treatment that will
kill them once it is established, but you can gain some control by grease
bands to stop the ants and a concerted attach with Jeyes fluid winter
wash and meths on every bit of cotton wool you can see.
The only thing that comes close to giving control is an aggressive
systemic like Dimethoate (nasty stuff). I would not be keen to eat the
apples off a tree that was dosed with that stuff.
> On the other I found some very small white egg type things.
>
> Both trees seem to have a lot of green algae type of stuff growing on
> them that rubbs off easily onto your clothing.
That's harmless. Mine have some quite old lichens on so I won't use
winter wash and live with a bit more apple scab and bitter pit.
> Can anyone help me and tell me what to do for the best to stop these
> two dying like the third one did.
Get the woolly aphid under control - it is a sap sucking pest which
allows lots of other opportunistic infections to get into the bark.
Regards,
Martin Brown
Rod
"Martin Brown" <martin...@pandora.be> wrote in message
news:3C0B90D4...@pandora.be...
>
> That will be woolly aphid. I have never found any treatment that will
> kill them once it is established, but you can gain some control by grease
> bands to stop the ants
This is an urban myth that needs killing off once and for all. AFAIK Ants do
*not* encourage or 'farm' aphids in the UK. Ants will collect the honeydew
secreted by aphids so you will always see ants where aphids are present.
Some species of ant will protect the aphids or the tree against aphid
predators but I'm not sure if any of those are UK species. Grease bands are
not appropriate to aphid control-they are for winter moth whose wingless
adult females climb the trunks to lay their eggs.
One of the worst aspects of woolly is the development of canker associated
with heavy infestations. Where possible you should prune this out but you
may have a tree like 'James Grieve' which is notoriously susceptible to
canker, in which case it's probably not worth persisting with. The green
algae and lichens are nothing to worry about but will anycase be reduced by
use of a tar oil winter wash - something I prefer to avoid if possible
because it also kills beneficial animals like the predators of red spider
mites so red spider often becomes a problem where tar oil is used
frequently.
encourage small birds like tits by provision of food and nestboxes. On some
of the organic sites you will find info about other things you can do to
encourage natural predators like lace wings etc.
Rod
Kay Easton
<martin...@pandora.be> writes
>
>
>t...@iantib.plus.com wrote:
>
>> I've recently (4 months ago now) bought a house that has (had) three
>> apple trees in the garden. One had been so badly pruned that it died
>
>That is amazing. I have known apple trees survive chopping off at ground
>level. And the rootstock can sometimes even come back from the taproot.
My elderly cooking apple blew over in the 1987 'hurricane' depositing
over 400lbs of apples on the ground - we chopped it back ferociously to
gain access to the rest of our garden, and even after that it
flourished. I guess Victoria was right, and it was disease rather than
pruning that killed this tree.
>
--
Kay Easton
Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/garden/
Ros Guthrie
<t...@iantib.plus.com> wrote in message
news:3c0b553b...@extra.news.plus.net...
> Hi,
>
> I've recently (4 months ago now) bought a house that has (had) three
> apple trees in the garden. One had been so badly pruned that it died
> pruning I presume.
>
> The have an old trunk and a few old branches then hundreds of very
> length.
>
> I presume I need to re prune them to get it back in shape and under
> control.
>
> Each tree has a lot of rotten stumps and branches.
>
> On one I have noticed that there is a cotton wool type substance on a
> couple of branches in notches of branches.
>
> On the other I found some very small white egg type things.
>
> Both trees seem to have a lot of green algae type of stuff growing on
>
> Can anyone help me and tell me what to do for the best to stop these
> two dying like the third one did.
>
> Thank you for your time.
Sounds like overpruning to me. If you prune out some of the vertical shoots
towards the inside of the tree it should help with air circulation which in
turn should deter woolly aphids.
I have tried several methods to eradicate the woolly aphids this year, from
scraping them off, to growing chives around the base of the tree, to
squirting them with washing up liquid and I have definitely reduced the
population.
Good luck
Ros
Larry Stoter
> t...@iantib.plus.com wrote:
>
snips .....
> > On one I have noticed that there is a cotton wool type substance on a
> > couple of branches in notches of branches.
>
> That will be woolly aphid. I have never found any treatment that will
> kill them once it is established, but you can gain some control by grease
> bands to stop the ants and a concerted attach with Jeyes fluid winter
> wash and meths on every bit of cotton wool you can see.
>
> The only thing that comes close to giving control is an aggressive
> systemic like Dimethoate (nasty stuff). I would not be keen to eat the
> apples off a tree that was dosed with that stuff.
>
snips .....
We also recently inherited a couple of old, badly hacked apple trees.
One had quite bad wooly aphid in canker.
Tackled the wooly aphid simply by giving it a good brush with a stiff
brush. Needed repeating a couple of times but now seems to have
disappeared!
Regards,
--
Larry Stoter
anton
Ros Guthrie wrote in message ...
>
><t...@iantib.plus.com> wrote in message
>news:3c0b553b...@extra.news.plus.net...
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've recently (4 months ago now) bought a house that has (had) three
>> apple trees in the garden.
>> substance on a
>> couple of branches in notches of branches.
>>
>Sounds like overpruning to me. If you prune out some of
>the vertical shoots
>towards the inside of the tree it should help with air
>circulation which in
>turn should deter woolly aphids.
I don't think that helps: air circulation helps with fungus diseases,
not pests.
>I have tried several methods to eradicate the woolly aphids this year, from
>scraping them off, to growing chives around the base of the tree, to
>squirting them with washing up liquid and I have definitely
>reduced the population.
Try painting the little wotsits with alcohol- I use isopropanol, but
I think meths will work as well. An old toothbrush is an easy
applicator.