I noticed sap weeping groom two of my young fruit trees. One is a Katy apricot and the other a Cot-n-Candy Aprium. The Katy has the above ground weeping while the aprium has some sap in the dirt near the soil line. The aprium is on its second year in the ground she the apricot was planted this spring.
I actually lost another Katy Apricot (1st year in the ground) last summer from weeping around the graft as it declined all summer until dead.
Last year I looked for any holes to indicate a borer but didn’t find anything.
Are these two trees doomed or is there something I can do now?!
I’ve read some preventative measures like sulfur spray and removing infected areas and painting /sealing the cuts, but I didn’t find anything on treating the base of the trunk itself.
I would think the sap layer would in some part isolate the area from further infection? Or should I remove the sap and spray /paint it?
If it is bacterial canker, which is does look like it could be, I don’t think there is anything you can do when it strikes that far down the base of the tree. If you do try to cut it out, I’ve read on here that mixing in copper with your paint / wash that you apply over it can better help protect the wound from reinfection
Updated photo of Katy apricot with what I guess is gummosis.
This is the same variety of apricot that died of something similar last year. This is a bare root I
planted this spring to replace it.
It’s definitely a dying tree now as all the leaves are starting to lay flat or droop.
Should I dig it up and replace the soil? I’m thinking the closest I should come to an apricot here should be an aprium… Though I don’t know if the problem would be the same?
Before I get comments about the watermelon vine at its base, the problem was well underway before I planted the melons.
Try disinfecting the soil using hydrogen peroxide or something like oxidate and a biological control agent lie actinovate sp. the H2O2 will kill beneficial microbes too, but you can reintroduce some with a good compost.
I pulled away a lot of the sap from the base of the tree and the trunk with my gloved hand.
It all had the same consistency so I assume it’s all sap. I didn’t see anything that looked or felt different in any way. It was pliable in my hand but still pretty dense.
First photo here shows the trunk after I’ve removed much of the sap. At the top of the colored sap you can see a small leafless branch that has clear sap leaking around it.
Next photo shows the foliage of the apricot.
The last photo is a comparison to how the foliage looks on an aprium.
Now I may well be reading into how the tree looks health wise knowing what happened last year to the same variety apricot. And the aprium isn’t an apricot but the leaves are similar. Also the growing habit of the Katy apricot is more horizontal on the scaffolding so perhaps the leaves just hang differently.
My guess is that apricot/aprium isn’t enough difference to matter. They’re both essentially apricots. Pluots would be very much like Japanese plums. All are going to have serious disease issues in your location.
I went and look at the base of my Summer Delight Aprium which is also a DWN tree and on Citation. There seems to be something that looks like crown gall, although I had seen this before when planting I thought it was something related to Apricot’s grow habit which is knotty. Is this crown gall?
