I withdraw my comment about seeing more cedar apple rust than usual. What i think I’m seeing is one especially susceptible tree. I planted a karmine de sonneville recently, and it’s very visible from my bathroom window, and it is covered with large CAR lesions.
But right next to it is an apple my uncle grew from seed which has not a single spot. And the Jonathan on the front yard has lots of small lesions, which is what it usually has. I’ve never bothered to treat for CAR because it’s never been a big deal. Trees don’t need every inch of their foliage.
(And it seems wasteful to spray fruit which will only be eaten by squirrels anyway.)
I posted some pictures of the foliage on my Golden Russet tree the other day in which I thought the tree was being effected by scab. The consensus thoughts on the pictures is that it was not scab that my tree was suffering from. It’s been 4 or 5 days since I posted those pictures and today I notice the tree has dropped 70% of it’s leaves. The remaining leaves all have this blotchy brown look to them. It is definitely defoliating. Any chance my tree could have this disease?
I believe I have this Marssonina leaf blotch here,
( West Virginia) this year for the first time.
Many/ most apple trees are completely defoliated .yet full of apples.
never had this happen before , looks bad !
It won’t help the quality of the apples either, depending on when they ripen relative to the leaf loss. Tough year here- I also had pear scab defoliate my Bosc and Seckel pears too soon. I hate having to give them extra sprays and may cull them for resistant varieties. Some sites it’s not a problem.
I believe I have had this Marsonina leaf blotch. This year, part of my Gold Rush got it badly. Those branches have been defoliated. It has not spread to the whole tree (yet). I’ve tried to get rid of those diseased leaves but there were a lot of them.
I’m not sure that a dry season will clear this disease up once it is established in an orchard. The good news is that I seem to control it with two sprays, one on the first week of July and the 2nd a month later. I’m using a mix of Indar, Flint and Captan, but I don’t know what in that mix is working. I use the Indar for its kickback.
After looking over the orchard today, most Canopy leafs are about gone. Some young leafs at the tops of water sprouts , other vertical growth.
One thing I did notice, is that five , Ida red trees still have a lot of leafs. They look better than the rest , ( many other varieties ).
No spray orchard here. Looks worse than I have ever seen at this time of year !
@Hillbillyhort Do you think it’s this Marssonina Leaf Blotch? Will be hard for you to rake up and burn an entire orchard’s leaves in fall. That kind of sanitation supposed to go a long way in tamping this thing down.
Well thats what iam thinking , ?
Don’t know how to ID. For certain.
Looks like something new.
I won’t be raking up any leafs , just wait to see how this goes in the future ?
Nearby friends have a strictly no-spray cider orchard and asked me to recommend varieties for 30 new trees to plant. I’m inclined to say hold off until we know more about which varieties have the most MLB resistance. All of a sudden Goldrush is no longer a no brainer even for red cedar-free no-spray orchards.
Wouldn’t it be great if PRI could breed out of Goldrush these two weaknesses? Probably take years and years with no guarantee of success. So far the heirlooms I see around here don’t have the disease, maybe they’ll come in handy after all.
Tompkin’s King and old strain Stayman are extremely susceptible. I don’t think heirlooms provide more likelihood of resistance.
Let’s all keep our eyes open and try to figure out ourselves what varieties are resistant. I will check trees with that in mind for the rest of the season. I’ve got lots of orchards I manage that only received any fungicide sprays in the spring. Any orchards with a mixed bag of defoliation I will take notes on.
I’m in northern WV and may have the same thing. I posted about it a month or so ago. The only apple tree I have with any leaves is Pristine. 7 other apple trees are practically barren.
It would be great to pool info on what people have found to be particularly hard-hit or less-affected varieties. Of course it will be anecdotal and probably vary with site and conditions, but if we start to see patterns emerging that could potentially be valuable.
(Also, might be a good rationale for anyone making scion requests to GRIN: “Testing less widely grown cultivars for resistance to Marssonina spot”…)
Zestar, Scarlet Crush, Honeycrisp, Williams Pride, Suncrisp, Golden Russet, and Cripps Pink. I also have many other varieties grafted to those trees. I’ve never seen anything like it. Would’ve sworn they were all dying. The only apple I have left hanging is Cripps Pink since it ripens very late. Looks weird with apples on the tree but very few leaves.
@speedster1 Sorry to hear that. Do you spray a fungicide normally?
Internet articles list as susceptible to varying degrees: Goldrush bad; Northern Spy, its offspring Keepsake, Honeycrisp, Stayman, Liberty, Enterprise, Golden Delicious, Baldwin, Tompkin’s King, Mutsu.
I spray Immunox for CAR only on my Goldrush and so far no Marssonina (or CAR). That’s my only non-organic spray but Goldrush is so good I do it.
I planted a karmine de sonneville recently, and it’s very visible from my bathroom window, and it is covered with large CAR lesions.