A 100-year-old Winesap apple tree has a lot of leaves that seem to have some nutrient deficiency
Also had a lot of these tiny white bugs,
Any suggestions?
That looks like an insect stipple, maybe spider mite or that fly on the backside. My guess is mites, I’ve seen that damage on ornamentals and it was mite damage.
Could those be thrips? It looks like just exoskeletons in focus in the picture.
Yep. Looks like a Neem deficiency.
Veggies get those too. Gotta keep a lookout for them. Neem has always reduced the population.
Edit: Here is a link to useful OMRI insecticides. Azadirachtin is just weaponized Neem. But diluted Neem has worked fine.
I’m throwing in with spider mite stippling and/or thrip & white fly infestations.
When there are leaves that look like that and insects on the underside, it’s a virtual lock that those insects are the culprit, not something else. Spraying at this time of yr is a wasted effort.
Why is that? @applenut lives where it is warm. I find that if these get started in my hoop house, even at this time of year, these speckles will spread and spread. To get spider mites/thrips/aphids under control (their damage looks similar and their treatment is the same) I need to be spraying every 4-5 days until no new damage is seen. And then I can coast…with vigilance. 
Spray if you want and if in the tropics that might be necessary. But in USA this time of yr the leaves are about history anyway. And the tree is 100 yrs old. It’s survived this long and I think it will be fine come spring.
This assumes a climate where leaves will drop in the next 2 months.
1 Like
I would blast the leaves with some water spray for a start.
1 Like
The bug was positively ID’d as the White Apple Leaf Hopper. Utah IPM says: “They are a minor pest of apples and rarely cause economic damage. They cause stippling of leaves but this does not harm the tree. Treatment threshold for leafhopper ranges (according to various sources) from 3 insects per terminal to 6 insects per terminal. Treatment is usually warranted when the pest is a nuisance at apple-picking time.”
1 Like
I have been struggling to contol leaf hoppers in the nursey this year. I sprayed and sprayed but the damage contuned to apper on new growth. I fear that planting blackberrys close to the nursery might have invited them. From what I have read application of neonicotinoid eairly in the year is the best hope of controling them. On the bright side, I am now seeing a boom in benificial Lady insects in the nursery.