Compact Stella Dying

General Fruit Growing
1

Hello everyone,

My compact Stella started to leaf out this spring, and immediately the leaves started to brown and die. I bought it last year, and it seemed to do fine overwintering outdoors under a tarp, but now something has gone wrong and I am not sure what. Any ideas? Is it salvageable?

The damage:

How it looked towards the end of last summer:

2

That’s probably winter cold injury. It’s common for a freeze damaged tree to leaf out and then collapse suddenly when water demand increases. There’s nothing to be done now. Either it will die or not. More protection is in order if it survives. A tarp without heat is no protection.