I was spraying my apples and nectarines with some anti-fungal meds this morning when I saw what you see in the photos. It was only on a few apple trees… I had a bad infection a few years ago but I hadn’t seen Fire Blight in the orchard since. It had been pretty dry this spring but the weather pattern shifted and I haven’t been able to spray much due to my work schedule and all the wet days we’ve had. The last time I sprayed the orchard was about two week ago. Is this, indeed, the early stages of Fire Blight? I had not seen any cankers this winter so, if it is Fire Blight, I’m guessing it’s new this year.
That looks like cicada egg laying damage.
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Honestly, I didn’t know they could do any real damage. I had read that they lay their eggs on the ends of limbs but I didn’t know it would actually hurt the tree. Obviously, with this being a year for the Brood-X variety, we’re going to have some issues with these things if they’re the cause of what I’m seeing. Regardless, I went back out to the orchard for some more photos. I did see their tell-tale sign of cutting holes for their eggs in my trees’ young branches. I suppose I could hit them with some dormant oil to smother them but I’d have to be out there 24/7 for a couple months to be able to do any real damage to them and, even then, it really won’t make much difference in the grand scheme of things.
