My liberty apple tree has cedar rust. I live in virginia zone 7b. I haven’t closed a couple pictures so people can inform me how bad they think it is. It is only a couple of years old last year.It was not noticeable. I have
way too many eastern red cedars in my woods so I can’t remove them… Fruit nproduction was poor but the tree is only a couple years old and I grafted a Dayton on for help this spring. Those leaves also have rust. Currently, the tree has not been sprayed with anything. Should I try fungicides and at what schedule or rate? Or, Is there another variety I should be trying. Thanks.
All
Definitely spray. I use any of the fungicides on hand. Most are based on the same few chemical compounds anyway. Itis tough to give a schedule. Depends on your climate.
I just use a hand pump sprayer and spray as needed since we rain daily often.
Spray myclobutanil (Immunox) in the spring till 6 wks after bloom, about 3 sprays. This should completely control it. You probably have to wait till next year to get in under control, by spraying early in the year.
It is important to use myclobutanil and not just any fungicide. I had a Liberty tree next to infected cedars that was completely unaffected with this treatment for 10 yrs that I owned the property. The first year I was not spraying and it was so badly affected that it was hardly growing.
That is so strange to me. I have had my Liberty many years, maybe 15-18 years here in 6B southern Indiana. There are red cedars everywhere in my fields, some as close as 100 feet and loaded with those ugly big freaky-looking balls of spores, whatever they are called. I added a second Liberty about 4-5 years ago. Neither tree has ever had even a touch of rust, fireblight or scab. They are the most disease-resistant trees I have.
However, they are bug magnets and the fruits are infested with plum curculio based on the crescent-shaped scars I see, unless they are routinely and timely sprayed.
Having said all that, it is also strange to me that your Liberty is a scant producer. Mine are absolutely loaded with apples every year, and they never skip a year. If I were better at spraying and thinning I would have more nice apples than we could want just from my first tree.
I wonder if maybe your tree was mis-labeled or maybe the difference in climate affects it, making it more susceptible to disease, although I wouldn’t think our climates were extremely different.
Hopefully you won’t get any disease next year and a nice crop will be forthcoming.
Sandra
Edited to add: I just realized you said your tree was only a few years old, so that is probably why there is little fruit yet. Just wait, in a couple of years you’ll probably have apples coming out of your ears!
Cedar apple rust is a tough one, especially in areas like Virginia where eastern red cedars are everywhere, since they’re the alternate host for the fungus. Even though Liberty has some resistance, it’s not immune, and seeing rust show up is pretty common in your area.
Since you can’t remove the cedars, using a fungicide is your best option if you want to keep the tree healthy and improve fruit quality. Products with myclobutanil (like Immunox) or other fungicides labeled for cedar apple rust are effective. The key is timing: you’ll want to start spraying in early spring around bud break and continue every 7–10 days until about a month after petal fall, since that’s when the spores from cedars infect apple leaves.
