Yes, I’ve had healthy trees of same species next to dead ones with absolutely no explanation of why one survived the freeze conditions that killed the other. Often something kills one tree out of many even between complete, top to bottom clones.
Hort-sleuthing is fun but often provides no definitive answer…
I did find a major root flares, but they skin of the root were mush and decomposed. There were also a tunnels about 1inch diameter, probably from the cicadas I also found.
Unfortunately it looks like my tree is a goner, but due to roots. The fungal issue was secondary.
Hard to say if it’s a goner. The root issues don’t look good but there are many apple trees that live on with problems that you think would kill the tree for sure.
I’ll give it another year. Hopefully excavating all that dirt to expose the root flare and also removing the synthetic burlap around the trunk helped. I’ll also remove the nearby tree across the fence in case it’s fighting an underground war of some kind.
If and when this tree goes, my son is going to be very disappointed. This tree doubles as his favorite climbing tree.
I once created a lot of regret in a client by removing a very large and low limb from a century old apple tree that his children used to use to climb up it. No putting it back, except maybe by opening up the base to a lot of light and hoping for a new bud to sprout there. Perhaps a bark graft.
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?
No, it doesn’t look like it. The photos posted by sockworth are more the look.
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.
It’s been pretty bad here, too. Partly the wetness of the weather, I’m guessing.
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.
Certainly other fungicides, less expensive may work as well. I don’t know if new research has been done.
https://blogs.cornell.edu/acimoviclab/2018/09/24/marssonina-leaf-blotch-causes-apple-leaf-defoliation-where-cover-sprays-were-stretched-in-summer-2018/
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.
My Gold Rush got CAR early in the year and this disease later in the year. Double whammy, indeed!!
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.