Two of my apple trees planted this spring had some abnormal looking growth around the grafts when I received them from the nursery. I contacted the seller and he reported that the grafts look great- just a different graft type than the other trees. I was just reading up on a different thread about crown galls and hope that is not the case here. Is this callus/gall-like growth typical for some types of grafts? Or do I have something to be concerned with? Thanks!
That’s just callus. Crown galls are at soil line and below and affect roots.
I would disagree with @bleedingdirt .
Crown gall can be above ground, if it is introduced there by a wound , such as a graft , etc.
Looks like crown gall to me .
This is not just normal callus
I would build a fire around that tree ,to possibly sanitize the soil.
Get a replacement somewhere else
2 Likes
Could it also be burr knots, ie root initials trying to form?
Looks too big for burr knot on that size stem to me
1 Like
Yes, and that seems small/early for a burr knot. But I won’t rule it out. It also seems early for a crown gall to show up.
In the top picture it almost looks like small roots trying to form. The raised area has that dimpled appearance I’ve seen with burr knots.
Learnt something new, thanks!
1 Like
1 Like
Further down the rootstock (buried) there were some burr knots, they are on mm111, so maybe. But being right along on both sides of the graft lines led me to believe it was scarring tissue that may have become infected. The trees suffered some cold injury, so it’s hard to access whether this is affecting the trees’ health at all.
Couple my trees from Century Farm Orchards look similar to your pix.
That makes sense—these came from Century Farm Orchards also. Maybe it’s just the type of graft they are using for some trees. Are your trees growing well?
Or maybe they have crown gall ?
And don’t sanitize their grafting knife ?
I checked again with Century Farms this time specifically mentioning crown galls, and they again have no concern with the grafts, that everything looks normal. Based on their excellent past support and reputation (they really have been top notch), I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and see how things play out. Aside from the cold injury on one of them, the trees seem to be doing fine. Thanks for everyone’s help.
1 Like
For my part, I’d vote for aerial burr knots. I’ve seen a lot of that through the years.
I’ve also seen a lot of crown gall. We are plagued with it on our peaches we bud every year. Sometimes we will destroy 25% of our successful buds on young trees because of crown gall (very discouraging, I might add). We also get crown gall in our thornless blackberries, but strangely haven’t seen it affect performance at all.
The reason I’d go with aerial burr knots in the above photo around the graft tissue is that crown gall tends to look sort of bubbly warty. The surface of galls are rough and ugly, in my experience. I don’t see that in the above photos.
2 Likes
It’s pretty easy to differentiate burr knots from crown gall in my experience, burr knots are much harder. If you can easily break the growths with you hands from the tree, it’s crown gall. I’m with Olpea and FN on this. I have plenty of experience with both. If it was crown gall I’d recommend cutting it out. It usually does not impair apples in my orchard and nursery, even if nearby peaches are literally killed by it. That’s another reason I expect burr knots which almost always form on 111.
You could also pile soil up to the knots and they will root out if I’m right.
1 Like