This is a Golden Delicious 2.5" cal. been in ground 2.5 yrs. Produced one apple first year and has been going downhill since. Not much leafing, no fruit spurs, no blooms, leaves out and then starts dropping them. Cold this be fire blight? Any suggestions? Attached pics but never have done before so hope you can see them. Thanks!
Doesn’t look like fire blight to me. Is it getting watered? Or drowning?
Looks more like scab.
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I agree, looks like scab to me.
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If anything its drowning. Lots of rain.
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Concerning the bearing or lack thereof, bearing expectations vary depending on what rootstock the tree is grafted on. It takes at a minimum of 4 years for a tree on M-111 rootstock to bear and 3-4 for some other smaller semi dwarfs. Some varieties take much longer. I had a Winesap that spit a couple apples until year 10. You have to much limb shading due to lack of pruning. Also know that the Golden D is very susceptible to Marssonina. Your leaf loss may be because of it. The lack of blooming and Marssonina are not related. I have one tree that has scab, frogeye, and Marssonina. Golden Ds are high maintenance trees. Spraying a quality fungicide is a must.
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I thought it was at first but it didn’t seem to follow the normal pattern. I speayed with neemoil. No change. The tree isnt putting out any new growth of any type. Leads me to think too much water of which I cant control. In zone 9b I just have no success with apples.
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It can be a challenge. Lost a Yates and a Shockley is looking like a goner in my older trees. Still have 23 established apple varities going in heat zone 9A.
You have to be on it constantly though. Got another week in the hospital and I guess my starts are basically going to be dead. Hundreds of trees. No one to baby them like they need. They are drying up.
I think there has to be a few apples that will survive in TX. Don’t give up with trying to grow some apples. There has to be some that can tolerate that heat, rain, and no rain situation where you live.
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