Hello Everyone. I’m trying to ID an issue that I’m seeing on my apples here in south eastern New Jersey. My initial worry was fireblight given the recent heat and high humidity but the more I read the more unsure I get. I would expect fire blight in the spring so maybe this is just heat stress of some sort?
The affected varieties are Granny Smith (very mild), Chestnut Crab (mild), Airlie Red Flesh (mild), Crimson Crisp (moderate), and Honey Crip (moderate).
Side note, the white tinge on the leaves is surround clay.
Following. When I see gray discoloration I think scab, but don’t take my word for it, as we get almost no scab here. You might look up photos for scab on apples and compare. But the red/brown/yellow is something else,
In the second photo, where you show the bottom of a leaf, I see orange/yellow spots with what looks like little brown blow-outs coming from them. That looks like Cedar Apple Rust (CAR); I have plenty of that stuff here. It could be something else entirely so don’t take my word for it. Check for yellow spots all over your leaves. I ended up cutting down every cedar tree on my property to prevent further spread but every apple tree in my orchard shows signs of it every summer.
If you’re indeed in NJ, you probably had a wet summer too. Southeastern PA sure did! I got over 7" of rain in July and we’ve already seen just over 7" this month. The humid weather doesn’t help either. When things get wet, CAR sets in.
I do suffer CAR badly in the spring. Thankfully ive been able to mitigate it with sprays. Ive never had an issue with it in the late summer/fall months though.
The burns dont seem very CARish though. Inadequate water may be it but as noted the one leaf displayed a growth that makes me wonder.
Now im noticing some pretty bad lesions on the trunk of my crimson crisp. Im hoping the tree pulls through.
You may lose that tree. I found some in my orchard with the same issue. I know I’ve lost one so far.
I tend to see CAR set in by late June. Thus far, I’ve not been able to control it. By July, all my leaves look pretty bad. I have to try to get my sprays applied on time next season.
Good luck with the rain today! We’re expecting 4-6 inches of it from this mess! At this point, I don’t think that spraying is helping. The damage is already done and, since anti-fungal sprays are more of a preventative than a cure, I feel I’m too late this year. Here’s to next season!
My orchard is very young. Most of my trees have only been in the ground for a little over four years. Between the Fire Blight in the apples about three years ago and the Horde X Cicadas this year, many of my trees have struggled to reach 5’ high! So, I can’t say whether or not any one of them is better with certain disease because all I’ve been doing since they’ve been planted is fight off disease and pests.
Yes, I know. Many were ordered and shipped to me as a gift. I’m doing what I can with them, hoping not to offend the sender in the process. I still think I that, if I can get the spray on in time, I may be able to prevent the bulk of the issues I run into.
I’m in a similar boat, though due to my own selection. My disease resistant variety (enterprise apple) ended up getting grazed by deer too much and died over winter a year or so back. I wasn’t able to find information about CAR resistance on some of the varieties I’m growing so I rely on spray over genetics.
Like Blueberry said, none of them seem to suffer so much as to be in any danger. So far my experience with CAR has been:
Crimson Crisp - Susceptible
Winesap - to new
Airlie Red Flesh - to new
Era Redlove - way to new
Granny Smith - Susceptible
Chestnut Crab - Resistant
Honeycrisp - Susceptible
I’m trying to get mapped on here so I can compare what others in my area are experiencing and growing:
Is the plant irrigated? It looks like water stress to me.
Or phytotoxicity if you are spraying. I’ve damaged my youngest tree with spray even though it seemed benign. I’m hoping it pulls through. I’m still not sure what in my mix caused the damage in the first place. In my case the leaves burned fairly evenly from the edges until the leaves were crisp.
I water deeply once a week except this past one I pushed my limit to once every two weeks thinking the mulch would help. I will have to water this particular tree twice a week.
Deep watering once a week seems ok to me. Maybe someone else has another theory. Your location is hotter than mine though so maybe kicking it up a notch will help. How long has it been in the ground?
I planted all of my trees on March 8. I pruned them back, since I’m following the DWN method (or a slightly modified one), and all have been fine. Their growth has been exponential and fascinating. They grown quickly. I have been battling a type of borer that has damaged the shoots and aphids.
Ok that makes sense. Being their first year in the ground means you will need to baby them a bit more.
I get hit hard by aphids too. Its partially my own fault for pushing more growth than I should. I hope it doesn’t bite me in the long run but I’m impatient.
