I noticed some fissures opening up on various branches of one apple tree. We have hit a bit of a dry spell so I’m assuming it is related. Anyone have any other guesses or suggestions on how to handle it? Reading other cracking threads leads me to think that cleaning up the edges and sealing it may be the best course of action.
I’d speculate it’s hot sun on a frozen limb that did this.
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@busch83, I don’t have the exact same thing but I have had damage along trunks. The crack is small but may hide true extent of what might be dead underneath. If the crack is along SW facing side, it could be sun+freeze related as @BlueBerry mentioned.
As you know, the living portion will “wall” itself off and eventually the dead portion will become dry and brittle so it can be easily peeled off later. If it were me, I would come back later in the season to re-examine, and at that time remove the dead stuff so there’s no crevices for insects to overwinter and also so that you can spray dormant spray more effectively.
Your leaves look good so I believe it not to be a big deal for the tree.
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TY both. Most of it is on the SW side but there is one that is on the NE and the damage was not there a few weeks ago. That’s why my assumption was water stress. Thankfully I’m not as concerned with this tree. I call it my “forsaken” tree. It wasn’t performing well so I moved it out of my orchard but kept it for grafting practice. It gets very little love but keeps trucking along.
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