Purchased new house and apple tree looks bad

Purchased a new house and was told there is a granny Smith tree and another newer tree planted. The granny Smith looks awful. The fruit has brown and black spots and many leaves have large brown spots. The smaller tree looks better but also has some leaf spots. If I posted a picture could someone help?

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Welcome to the rabbit hole! Glad to have ya aboard.

I will let others answer these questions but its good you are paying so close attention. Please let us know your zone or location and soil and any other microclimates this is in. (is it near a stone wall, is it in full sun or shade, does water sit on it for more than a day? etc…)

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Just a guess, Alternaria Leaf blotch?

Leaf Spots of Bother: The Troublesome 3 | NC State Extension.

Please let us know where are you located i. e. state you are in.

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Sorry. SE Michigan next to Lake Erie. Clay loam soil. Next to a 6 ft picket fence. Gets sun from sun up until about 5pm. Water drains well for clay soil as it isn’t mushy after rains.

If it helps, I’ve had a Granny Smith on M7 for 30 years…and maybe have gotten 10 good apples off it in all those years.

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My apples are on M111 and are great trees that produce worthless fruit 95% 0f the fruit. Trees very healthy though.

I think Mamuang is probably right and the tree has Alternaria Leaf blotch. It’s possible its frogeye leaf spot looking at the last picture but I think that is unlikely. This is due to the large masses of brown on some of the leaves which are associated with Alternaria Leaf blotch. You don’t have fireblight or powdery mildew for sure. I don’t think it’s scab either. It could be something else but the remedy is going to be the same you spray with a fungicide to prevent the disease.

You’re going to want to spray the trees in the future. For this year it’s a judgement call you may spray or skip it since the blotch is pretty well established. I would certainly start spraying next year.

I would start with one of the two spray schedules that we have on the forum. We have an organic spray schedule provided by Scott which is very detailed but don’t let that scare you. Basically, you spray sulfur in the Spring and after petal fall you spray sulfur mixed with Surround or Spinosad. Alan has authored the synthetic spray schedule. Here are links to both below.

Spray Schedule- Synthetic Materials

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Thank you!

welcome…

There are many Michigan gardeners here in the forum (I’m right by Lake St Clair myself).

I think you’ve already gotten good responses, so I am going to leave it at that.

Scott

Apple cedar rust.

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