New to growing fruit trees. Planted 8 bare root 2 year old apple trees in 2022 spring. I already had a 4 year old Honey crisp that produced plenty of blooms and smaller apples this past spring. All the apples fell off early spring and I had a few limbs where the leaves dried up and fell off. From my research I realized it was probably fire blight. In the pictures attached you can see the areas on the trunk that have cracks and leaf curl. Damaged area at lower trunk is from Deer horning tree 2 yrs. Ago. My questions are do I need to completely remove tree or can tree be saved, and will this spread to my other trees if I don’t completely remove it. Also, the other trees are within 75 to 100 feet of the honey crisp. Thanks in advance
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Hi Gary,
Welcome to the forum!
If you are quite certain of your diagnosis the safest thing to do is to remove all infective wood well below the infection. From your pic I can’t tell what that means, but if all you have left is a stump once you remove and destroy the infection, you can possibly regraft the rootstock with a variety more resistant to Fireblight if it regrows in spring. This at least removes the threat of spreading to your new trees, and you may still get to reuse a mature rootstock, so not all is lost!
You may want to post a picture of the whole tree with a closeup pic of foliage so others more familiar with Fireblight can offer advice on where you do your cuts. Make sure you sterilize tools between cut and immediately burn or dispose off your property the wast wood. You might also inquire about your diagnosis to your county extension agent who may be knowledgeable about other diseases that your tree may have.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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Fireblight cannot be transferred by unsterilized tools, but other maladies can.
Did second or third pictures not upload correctly?
The branches that were pruned towards the top look like they were done a year or more ago as they appear to be healing over. Trunk damage looks like it was either from the deer and possibly the sun to me. Fireblight cankers are usually reddish and sunken with the bark cracking off and and generally gross looking. If the damage 12" or so and higher up the trunk is in fact fireblight, there appear to be some rootstock suckers that you could graft onto. (Assuming it hasn’t spread lower down the trunk and into the roots.)
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THANK YOU, I had more pictures but couldn’t post more than one pic. on first post but maybe I can now
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When I tried notice come up and stated only 1 download for new post
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I left the sucker thinking if I had to remove tree I could graft to the sucker I think it’s a M 111.
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Is it only on the left scaffold branch (in the last picture)? You could just take that off and leave a bit of a stump there to graft onto in the Spring.
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Mostly on left side, seen some on right side. In June I cut out what was diseased and the new growth you see is what resulted. When the deer horned the tree 2 yr. ago I did think this damage may have attributed to the fire blight. Do you think this year’s new growth could work for scions or is that too big of a risk. Any advice and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Thanks
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Gary: I once had Honeycrisp, a mislabeled tree, that is the only apple in 15 years of growing them to have fire blight strike. I cut the branch away, burned it in the barbeque grill & disinfected the pruner. (That tree is now gone; didn’t want it in the first place.)
Depending on how long your green season is, that new growth might be fine for scions to use in '24. I wonder about how delicate it may in handling winter. Did it harden off in time? I’d be inclined to cut scion (first year wood, of course) from an older branch that showed no FB symptoms & is likely to be able to handle whatever winters you get so it will be strong for grafting.
I once made the mistake of trying to graft from a piece that was winter-killed but hadn’t shriveled.
Sounds like you are committed to growing Honeycrisp. I wish you well.