An Apple A Day…

I’m hoping the (fruit) doctors here can help me diagnose my sick apple tree!

A little over a year ago we moved to the greater Seattle area. We were very excited to find two apple trees on the property - but bummed when only one produced fruit.

In the summer, the sick tree had dark spots on its leaves (a dark grey to my eye). I’ll attach a photo. Then, this week, as I was doing some winter pruning (at least I think that’s what I was doing. To a beginner like me it felt like potential tree murder) I noticed that the sick tree had a type of small growth all over its bark that the healthy tree lacks. To me it looks like a small, pale teal type of moss (second post photo).

Are the spots and the growths related? Any plant doctors know what might be the cause?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Growth photo:

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The growth on the bark is just lichen… Which I don’t believe actually does anything. Leaves look like they have a disease problem… powdery mildew maybe? I couldn’t tell from the picture. If the tree covered in lichen, that’s not fruiting, isn’t in the sun most or all of the day, that’s likely why.

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The dark areas on the leaves are scab, which can be treated wih sprays. As evilpaul mentioned, the growth is lichen, which does no harm and can be ignored.

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Some fruit trees tend to bear heavily every other year so don’t be too discouraged yet about the one that didn’t fruit the first year you observed it. If it ends up bearing heavily every other year you can thin the fruit to prevent it from exhausting itself and taking the next year off. That way you could get production every year.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the dark spots on the leaves as long as the trees are still growing well and the fruit is unaffected.

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Those dark spots don’t look good to me… some of the leaves look very unhappy. It doesn’t look like scab in my orchard but it could be related to the climate. In my orchard scab is always circular spots. Hopefully some northwesterners will see this and chime in.

@RyanDobs

You should plant a cosmic crisp. You could always graft it to that tree. It is supposed to do well here. The report from @Vincent_8B makes me glad I planted one last year.

Here is the place in his thread where he hits on the cosmic crisp:
@Vincent_8B i hope you don’t mind.:pray:

Very nice. The deer got mine this Spring, and it didn’t recover as well as I would like. I will be lucky to get fruit next year. I hope you get good flavor and sugar in yours. The ones I tasted right when they hit the market were great.

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Vincent_8B

Aug '20

This Cosmic Crisp seems like ahead of the others varieties in my garden. Fruits really good size. Hopefully the flavor is great. I am very happy with it.

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nil

Aug '20

Do you think it is early because it is the first crop?
Jonagold and Gala have been big winners for me. I read that they are the only major commercial varieties grown in W. Washington. I thinned the Gala early, and the fruit size is pretty good. I should harvest the first Gala in ~2 weeks, and Jonagold in ~4 weeks.

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Vincent_8B

Aug '20

I have no idea for the first year with little tree. The only thing i am sure Cosmic Crisp will be heavy fruiting even no pollinators near by.

Vincent_8B

Sep '20

Cosmic Crisp Apple. (September 9th 2020.)
The great tasting Apple for family. They ripped perfectly well in Western Washington areas.

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