All living things get sick… including fruit trees!
This is an inescapable fact of nature.
It just so happens, that our area of North Carolina is basically a petri dish… an incubator of bacteria and fungi, if you will. Our hot, rainy, and humid conditions are pretty much ideal for every apple tree disease in the world to reproduce and spread.
It sounds a bit hopeless, until you realize that the majority of apple diseases, are not actually fatal to the tree. Some are more cosmetic than anything else.
Add to this fact, that many apple trees (as well as rootstocks) have certain specific resistances…
It suddenly makes sense how apples have proliferated in the south!
Of course, for the backyard orchard there’s also the added option that you CAN actually spray to kill harmful bacteria and fungi (if you want).
There are options, even to the organic grower.
Couple things to point out before we get started on specific apple tree ailments;
Trees are NOT Pristine in Nature
I was just outside in the trees behind the house this morning (not fruit trees), taking note of all the damaged sick leaves throughout the forest.
This is the natural world. Not trees looking horrible and unhealthy… but trees having blemishes, getting small strikes of disease here and there. Trees not looking perfect.
When you go to the box stores, or big commercial nurseries, the only way you get a young maiden apple tree to be blemish free is to grow it in a controlled environment with some sort of spray program in place.
Don’t be deceived. As soon as YOU take it out of that environment and stick it in your yard, it’s going to revert back to its natural form.
Maybe in other parts of the country you can get away with a no-spray orchard that attracts no bacteria and fungus… I can tell you with 100% confidence, that’s NOT going to happen here in the Piedmont.
If you’re growing fruit trees in our area, dealing with bacteria and fungus, one way or another, is a part of life.
This is part of what an orchardist does. Congratulations, the moment you plant a fruit tree, you’re officially a plant doctor!
Are You Going to Spend Time With Your Trees?
Most people who plant apple trees, wind up enjoying the process of walking their orchard and overseeing (doctoring) their trees. It’s a bit therapeutic, even though it’s work.
Be honest with yourself in the time you’re willing to spend with your trees.
If you’re a busy person, who just doesn’t want to bother much with your trees. Stick to Easy trees! Even easy trees need your time, but the demands will be far less than a medium or hard tree.
If you’re willing to dedicate yourself to your trees.
If you’re going to be a good, hard-working, steward of the shire, you open yourself to more challenging, yet rewarding variety types (the mediums and hards listed on this site).
Whether you implement a chemical spray program, an organic spray program, or just implement other natural methods of treating your trees problems. If you are committed to spending the time to control the environment and work your trees, you can make them look as if they just came from a box store or commercial nursery. If you are so inclined.
But more importantly, with your time and effort, you can keep just about any tree happy and healthy!
Last point, before getting to specific diseases:
Plan for Losses
While I’d love to tell you, “if you choose disease resistant (easy) trees, you’ll have years of care-free growing…” that just isn’t necessarily true.
There are a lot of factors that come into play with any living thing, especially fruit trees. The weather being a big random factor; one unexpected hurricane or horrible thunderstorm can snap a young apple tree in half.
A lot of times I see folks buy 1 or 2 trees. And while this is fine for the moment, I always encourage folks to PLAN for a larger plot of trees if they have the space. And get them in the ground sooner, rather than later.
Relying on only a few trees to produce apples for you, puts you in an unhappy situation should any of your trees get sick or damaged. At best, with a bad outbreak of whatever, you may need to prune back or otherwise have your tree’s production delayed. At worst, you could lose an entire tree and need to start over… again, this is just part of growing fruit trees.
If you only have 2 or 3 trees and 1 or more of them gets into trouble, your whole ‘apple producing production’ can get thrown a serious monkey wrench… It can be physically and emotionally draining to have your hopes and hard work entirely dashed!
Common sense says the more trees you plant, the better your chance of more trees thriving… in turn, producing more fruit! Even if you happen to have a whole bunch of sick trees (which we hope is never the case), if you’ve got a whole bunch more thriving, then at least your overall program is still moving forward. And that’ll keep your effort and time, well rewarded.
There’s no secret formula or special number here. Everyone’s layout, needs and wants are a bit different. I stress for folks to think of how many trees they may ultimately want down the road, if you enjoy keeping an orchard and everything is working out. Then kind of work backwards from that number, considering the cost and time involved to put your first group of trees in.
It’s Difficult Being a Doctor, but it is Rewarding!
One of the biggest complications in identifying apple tree problems, is the fact that nature’s problems, mostly bacteria and fungi, don’t form a queue and take a number… It’s more like they form up like a football team and tackle your trees all at once.
What I mean to say is that an apple tree can be suffering from nutrient burn, CAR, Scab, and Fireblight all at the same time.
Add to this, that even in good circles, there misinformation, mislabeled images, and mistakes… the path of being an orchardist, is far from being easy peasy.
Like I mentioned earlier, don’t let it overwhelm you. We’ve got a couple things going for us;
- Apple trees have been appling for a long time. They want to survive!
- Many apple tree problems aren’t fatal and most can be addressed.
Over the years, I’ve learned having an orchard is about management. It’s about making decisions, working with the trees, and reacting accordingly. At the end of the day, whatever’s happening to a tree, the goal is to prune back infected/dying wood. If you’re diligent with this basic goal and are present to manage and make the decisions, you’ll be successful despite whatever nasties mother nature throws at you.
I will add more apple tree ailments as I have time:
Cedar Apple Rust (CAR)
Cedar rust is a fungus that sheds from juniper/cedar trees.
We have it in ABUNDANCE in our immediate area.
While some people recommend taking out Cedar Trees on your property, the truth is, CAR can travel on the wind FOR MILES… so I recommend you don’t waste your time.
In fact, I set most of my new apple trees right under a group of cedars. If an apple variety is going to get hit hard by CAR, I’d like to know right away.
CAR basically starts as little blotches on a leaf and slowly eats up and kills the leaf.
Luckily, car is mostly cosmetic. Unless you have an apple variety that is particularly susceptible to it, most apple trees will just push right through it with little consequence.
Anytime an apple tree gets any disease or problem, that damages most of a leaf, or starts the majority of leaves falling off… that’s a problem. As you know, trees get a good portion of their energy through their leaves. So if an apple loses too many leaves before the fall, it won’t have the energy to grow at an optimal rate and may weaken itself to other diseases and problems. So if you see most of the leaves becoming useless to the tree or falling off, you have to act… or realize, that next season, you need to act more proactively.
Most of the apple trees I sell are selected for CAR resistance. If I’m selling an apple tree that struggles with CAR, you can bet there is some good reason… and I’ll also always let folks know in the tree description, if the tree struggles with CAR and why you may or may not still want to consider it.
The image above left, is an example of a newly grafted tree hit hard by CAR. This variety is Cauley, one of the three I mention on the homepage. You can see by the lower right leaf, the amount of CAR is significant, I would say 50-60% coverage. Most likely that leaf will not survive long and if that level of CAR hits ALL the leaves, the tree is going to struggle and maybe, even ultimately, fail.
It’s also worth taking a look at the upper right leaf, where we see only about 9 spots of CAR. If a bunch of leaves on a young tree look like that leaf, with only 5-10% coverage, that’s not a big deal. That’s almost purely cosmetic. It will have little affect of the leaf’s performance and won’t cause the leaf to fall. In our area, many apple trees, even those with CAR resistance, will get this amount of CAR on a number of its leaves.
A tree that has virtually no mark of CAR at all, is a tree of exceptionally high resistance. We love to see those trees in the orchard!
Fireblight
Fireblight is the bacteria that turns your tree dried out and black, so that it looks like it was scorched by fire.
Fireblight, unchecked, kills apple trees… Fireblight, totally unchecked can kill entire orchards!
The first and main line of defense against Fireblight, is to plant apple varieties that have resistance.
Because I’m a no spray orchard, I do my best to steer clear of any varieties that are susceptible to Fireblight.
Catching fireblight doesn’t mean your tree is an instant goner… if you act fast enough to prune out the infection, your tree can stilk thrive. But fireblight is a serious disease and having it in your orchard, is most certainly… playing with fire.
New apple growers often think every dead leaf that dries out on their tree is the dreaded Fireblight! This often is NOT the case.
I’ll come back and talk more about this when I have another minute.
Remember, the diseases, bacteria, and fungi that make apple trees sick are out there… on the wind and in the rain. You can’t hide from them. You can plan accordingly and optimize the health of your orchard so it deals with the inevitable without missing a step.