In March, I planted two apple trees I bought at Rural King - a Honeycrisp and a Granny Smith.
I selected them and pruned them according to some guides I found on this forum and on YouTube. I put some tree bark in the bottom of the hole to allow the roots to spread better in the clay soil, some pine needles in layers to help with drainage, and only amended it slightly with some soil that drained a little better. I added a layer of compost on top of the soil and then mulch on top of that. Also, I left about six inches around the trunk bare to avoid any problems.
Everything has been looking good so far. The only issues I’ve had are bugs munching a few holes in the leaves (as expected) and bermuda trying to take over the mulch around the tree.
About two or three weeks ago (early-mid May), I sprayed some Roundup to kill the bermuda so it doesn’t start hogging all of the water and nutrients from the trees. I was hesitant about using Roundup, but from what I’ve read, it is used quite often by orchards to do the same thing. I was extremely careful when I sprayed. I didn’t spray any leaves, I kept the nozzle close to the ground, I saran wrapped the trunk to avoid getting any on it, and I didn’t spray within 12 inches of the trunk. It definitely worked. The bermuda around the tree is dead dead and I shouldn’t have to worry about it creeping into my mulch any time soon.
About a week or two ago I noticed that some of the new growth that my trees put on was not looking too good. It was generating new leaves, but they looked like they had nutrient burn.
I should clarify that this was the “second round” of new growth that these trees have had. They had already put on about 12-18 inches, which is the standard for young non-bearing trees.
So I’m thinking it could possibly be from spraying the Roundup too heavy or it might be getting too much Nitrogen from the compost. We had a lot of rain last month in TN, so I can see how it might getting more nutrients than it needs.
My main question is - should I prune off the new growth that has these issues? And if you have any suggestions on other maintenance that can benefit my new trees I would love to hear it.
I would not spray Roundup under the dripline of a mature fruit tree (i.e. about 12 feet from the trunk) and that includes newly planted trees. The thought is that the roundup kills the ground. Your right about mulching it but you may not have a thick enough mulch top.
Your trees don’t look healthy. I’m hoping that it’s not fireblight or from the Roundup but can’t really tell from the pictures. It’s not the nitrogen from the compost. If it’s fireblight the ends will form a shepherd’s crook. If it’s from the Roundup there isn’t much you can do for it. My 2 cents.
also there shouldnt be anything going in the root zone other than soil, well rotted compost and maybe some perlite for drainage. anything else will steal N from the surronding soil to decompose it, stealing it initially from the tree. only thing you can do is give more soluble N to offset the loss of it at the root level. there could also be some round up effect going on also. im thinking your roots are hitting those pine bark and needles and not liking it. hopefully its only a temporary setback.
Have the leaves always looked a little droopy or is that just something that happened recently?
I’m wondering if it’s just in shock for everything spray etc. If they were just put in March, I think the roots need some time and plants needs to adjust. I would just water only to establish and not much else. See if the leaves get perky at some point and see if newly emerged leaves stay green.
I would not do anything until I identified exactly what was going on. The last two pictures the trees looked fine. If you applied commercial fertilizer at the time of planting, it could be fertilizer burn on one of the earlier pictures. The recommendation that I have read states not to apply fertilizer at time of planting. In fact, I never fertilize my apple trees for fear of fireblight. Fireblight tends to attack new growth too much. Lime is okay but not commercial fertilizer. Fireblight is a real problem in my area. Memphis area.
I had fireblight on one of my young trees back about 2011. Had to prune out the fireblight including most of the central leader. After that the tree did fine.
How prevalent is fireblight in your area? That is the only reason for pruning for your young trees at this time.
Looks like fire blight to me. Look up fireblight resistance for both apples- I suspect it’s poor. I learned the hard way to always make blight resistance top priority when buying apples or pears. Honeycrisp is notoriously hard to grow.
Your trees looked nice. I think the possibilities you’re questioning are soil/ compost or roundup. While others have suggested it could be fire blight.
I don’t think compost would hurt it and the round up you can’t do anything now at this point. If it’s fire blight, it looks like people have been able to prune it out or fix it in some way, but I think you must be very careful as to how you do it. Keeping everything clean etc.
I had a young pear tree, fertilized it too early too much and lost it to fire blight. I read somewhere that treating it with copper early in the season helps. But also the variety of pear I had was susceptible. Learned alot of these things after the fact.
Don’t love your plants too much was the best thing I’ve learned on these boards. So, If I were you, I would try removing some of the brown growth, keeping your cuts sterile and when you trash it. Then just water as normal as you would as trying to establish new tree roots, observe the tree and new growth to get more hints. Fire blight leaves will keep getting the brown edges.
