A week or two ago I noticed that one of my apples seemed a bit off, with some yellowing of the leaves. Today, it is looking far worse. Any ideas what could cause this? I checked around the base for borers, but it looks fine.
It has been pretty hot around here (93 today). But, it is on ranetka rootstock (hardy, near full sized), so I would think that the dwarfs I have nearby would be feeling any water-deficit issues first. Just in case, I watered it for a while after noticing its condition.
This is my biggest franken-tree, with ~22 varieties on it, so I would hate to lose it. Many of the grafts are large enough that they have a decent number of apples this year.
I know this would be a hard loss but it looks to me like it might already be past the time it could recover. As a fellow Frankentree enthusiast I share your pain. I don’t know that there is a cure but some of the others might have a solution or even advice to prevent a future occurrence. Bill
Fruitnut is likely correct. Somehow the vascular system stopped deliveries from the roots, apparently. I lost an E. plum tree at a site last week with no apparent explanation- it was even more sudden with all the leaves turning brown and drying out in a matter of days. It was pretty well established at a site that didn’t dry out and there is no obvious collar damage.
I’ve now removed them. A couple were snug, but none were digging in.
I wonder if the accumulation of different varieties increases the chances of a virus which weakens the whole thing. It hurts as this was the old place I had some of the varieties, especially a good sized branch of Swiss Limbertwig, which I was hoping to get a good sample of this year.
If it does die, I’d like to figure out what killed it. I’ll dig it up and take a look at the roots. At least it frees up a prime spot for some new trees (probably a pluot or two).
I probably should have done something when I saw the yellow leaves, but I’m not sure what I should have done.
Yeah, I expected to find borers or some big issue when I poked around the base, and was quite surprised to find it looked completely normal.
Gophers immediately came to mind for me as well, as I’ve lost a few apples and pears to them. Don’t know if they’re a problem in Bob’s location. Voles were mentioned earlier, and while I haven’t lost a tree to them myself, that sounds like another good guess.
We don’t have gophers, and pine voles (our more diminutive equivalent) USUALLY do their evil work in winter or early spring, but it is possible. Same general symptoms- root system mostly gone and tree unanchored.
Bob,
I dug my PF 1 up. The root looked normal. In the spring of 20-4, I did butchered a couple of mani scaffolds to graft and did some budding later. About 3-4 grafts took. But the winters of 2013-14 and 2014-15 were freezing cold. The tree must be hurt esp but my hacking of scaffolds but continued to put put leaves. I grafted a few more. Some took. Altogether 8-10 grafts/ budding on the trees.
This past winter was just plain weird. Warm when it should have been cold and vise versa. This spring! The tree/grafts never leafed out. They just shriveled and died.
Since its roots did not showed any signs of issue. I blamed it on repeated winter damage.
I would check your roots first, and if looks like the roots are not going to recover, there is an option. I would recommend Inarch Grafting since you have a lot of time and passion invested into the tree.
I think it’s too late to try to save it with in-arch grafting. Healthy trees form callous vigorously, the more stressed a tree the less likely a graft will take. The tree looks like it will be “dead” (the point of no return) in a week or two if it isn’t already.
I’ve only heard of using that kind of graft when a tree goes into winter healthy and gets girdled in early spring. Have you heard or seen otherwise?
I agree the tree is likely already dead and the new roots aren’t established. That tree needs help now, really probably last yr. Planting a potted tree next to it now and grafting is like using a life raft to save the titanic.
Alan and fruitnut probably are correct about it being too late, however, a tree like that I wouldn’t give up until I tried everything possible. Again, you need dig down carefully to the roots and establish that’s where the problem is. If by chance, it’s not root rot or something else didn’t destroy the roots, there maybe hope.
So far, I haven’t heard much from anyone on how to save the tree, at least I’m trying to help save the tree. Maybe if we got enough small rafts together, we could save the Titanic.
I agree with Alan and Fruitnut- the chances don’t look good. But, I did a few grafts on the chance it could help. If nothing else, I should learn something from it. Learning what doesn’t work takes up a lot of my time
Before starting on the grafting route, I removed the (very old) stake and tried rocking the tree. It was quite stable, as I would expect from a full size rootstock. Here’s a view of the top layer of roots, before I planted any of the rootstocks.
Thanks for the suggestion Ron! I didn’t have any large potted trees handy, so I harvested some B9 rootstocks. I know, this probably moves it from using a raft to save the titanic to using a life preserver. At least some of the roots were good sized. While I was at it, I potted up 4 of them (including one with a successful Victoria Limbertwig graft), to be better prepared next time.
It could be graft union failure. Seems I’ve read that graft union failure can be aggravated by virus. Bob already mentioned that possibility from all the grafts. And I know I’ve read warnings about picking up viruses and what that might do to the tree. My failures that I’ve noted have resulted in snapped graft unions. But I’ve at times been concerned about stone fruit trees with leaves that appeared to be virus infected.
