Last year I cleared land and built a new house. Of course, even before the house was built I planted a new apple tree. I chose Breaburn and this year I let the tree produce 2 apples. I just picked those apples and found spots on both. As an added note, I just dug out all the raspberries I planted because of yellow rust. That would not have had any effect on the apples, would it? Anyway, thanks for any information you guys can give.
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Hello and congratulations on your first fruits at your new home!
Take what I say with a solid dose of salt, because I am very new to fruit growing myself. But just to get the ball rolling…
According to orangepippin.com, Braeburn is susceptible to scab, mildew, fireblight, and especially cedar apple rust (CAR). Check out this link for more info:
https://www.orangepippin.com/apples/braeburn
I don’t think that any of these diseases are responsible for the damage that you’re seeing, but you may want to be aware of them as potential issues in the future.
I suspect that the spots you’re seeing might be a relatively mild case of bitter pit, which is caused by a calcium deficiency. My understanding is that it’s caused not just by a lack of calcium in the soil, but by a shortfall in the tree’s ability to access and deliver calcium to the fruit. Some varieties are more susceptible than others (don’t know about Braeburn in this regard), and young trees may tend to have more problems (if I remember correctly). Or it could be something else entirely!
One other thing to think about: Braeburn originated in New Zealand, and Orange Pippin describes it as a very late season apple that does best in warm and sunny locations. I notice that you’re in zone 4, so that may be an issue for you.
Hope this is helpful.
They are also susceptible to bitter pit, but I can’t tell for sure if those spots are sunken. If they are, that’s likely what it is which is difficult for the home grower to deal with. You can eat around the spots but fruit will not store well. Sometimes young trees are more susceptible so maybe yours’ will outgrow it. Commercial growers do multiple calcium sprays to control it.
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Thanks you guys. I looked up bitter pit and yes that is it. The spots are sunken. One site said there m
ight not be too much I can do about it but I still added a little boron, lime, and a lot of bone meal. I’ll let it soak in for the winter and hope for the best for next year.
From what I read, when the tree gets older, the roots go deeper and spread wider, increasing the chances (though not guaranteeing) that it can find enough calcium.
I don’t know if it helps any, but I’ve top-dressed with ground up egg shells.
Maybe it was in a quest to beat bitter pit that the apple tree ate Roger Williams:
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I used firewood ashes, which provide available calcium more quickly than egg shells could but now I’ve learned that too much potassium, which these ashes are loaded with, can interfere with calcium uptake. I’m also concerned that this may be a potential problem with using my urine as fertilizer (also loaded with immediately available K). However, I need to start doing some leaf analysis if I’m really going to figure this stuff out. Bitter pit is a real problem with certain varieties in my orchard (including braebern), but I don’t see much of it in those I manage
Perhaps the take away from my experience is to use some form of ground limestone to provide calcium for apple trees as I do for other orchards. and don’t use both firewood ashes and urine for fertilizer on susceptible varieties.
At least Goldrush never gets it and that’s my main crop storage apple.
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In years past, I always used wood ash and never had a problem. Now I don’t have access to it. The urine might help and next time I’m outside and I need to go, I’ll remember that. Thanks for the help. I will supplement the soil well.
The RHS has an interesting (to me, at least) article on bitter pit.
They suggest that bitter pit is “rarely due to a deficiency of calcium in the soil and can even occur in trees growing on chalk.” Instead, they suggest that it is connected with insufficient or inconsistent water supply during key periods of fruit production (especially during hot, dry summers), and that it can be made worse by excess nitrogen, potassium, and magnesium (as Alan alluded to), particularly in young, vigorous trees of susceptible varieties. For home growers, they recommend (1) avoiding the overuse of nitrogen and potassium fertilizers, (2) ensuring consistent water supply, and (3) judicious summer pruning to reduce excess vigor and redirect some calcium from leaves to fruit.
I would be interested to hear what people think of this advice - I believe I’m growing a couple of susceptible varieties myself, and while we’re still a couple of years away from getting fruit, it’s always good to have a game plan.
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Cornell consistently recommends keeping the soil in apple orchards at about neutral to help reduce storage disorders, but this obviously does not insure adequate calcium being absorbed into the fruit- calcium sprays are a standard practice to help fight bitter pit and other storage disorders. The way excess K interferes with calcium absorption is supposed to be the reason it is detrimental. Keep in mind that their is significant amounts of K in the harvest that is taken out of the soil, so usually some added K is going to be helpful.
One of my worst trees for bitter pit is located near my cistern and grey water outlet where it never suffers for lack of moisture, and I see no correlation to periods of water stress and bitter pit on my site, although I assume it must potentially be an issue.
I’ve always preferred orcharding by way of visual observation and tinkering rather than a more careful scientific approach using leaf analysis and university guidelines. I use free fertilizers that don’t allow very good measurement and any precise calibration. I resort to a more disciplined and less creative approach as a last resort, but if my Pink Ladies and Braeberns fail to produce useful apples this year I will probably alter my tactics. .
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I believe one reason water becomes an issue is that there tends to be more available calcium near a soils surface and as the surface dries, roots can no longer extract it. This occurs during summer when the fruit is sizing up so may be starving the fruit for calcium at the exact worse time. This is also why soil tests are supposed to be made separately, making a composite of the very top soil and another of the soil 18" and further down. When you apply lime to a soils surface it takes years to reach the subsoil.
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It sounds as though bitter pit may be the apple equivalent to BER in tomatoes; a Ca uptake problem.
If so, then it may be more complex than just adequate water but also consistent soil moisture over critical times in the fruit forming life. On tomatoes, BER can be caused by too little as well as too much water, and even by inconsistent watering (even though on average it is good).
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Yes blossom end rot can be bad in this area. There is plentiful calcium but it’s not always usable. The fruit trees don’t have any issues like that. Farmers farmed the heck out of the top 12” but below that is very rich clay. Getting the nutrients out of the clay is another trick.
Something I did this year may have helped with bitter pit was spring pruning. When I thinned apples I also rubbed off unwanted new growth that would be removed eventually anyway. In the past, I haven’t bothered doing this because this growth comes back during the summer when removed so early, but new research shows that shaded leaves PERMANENTLY lose their ability to photosynthesize, and by mid-summer or earlier, shaded spur leaves will likely have lost their ability to harvest energy and use it to invest in flower buds for next years crop.
Those water sprouts likely also consume a lot of calcium, so when I got my first crop of Honeycrisp in years without a lot of black-rot and the apples stayed on the tree instead off dropping prematurely I figured it may have something to do with this pruning- especially given that the apples have been huge this year with a full crop, probably requiring more calcium for the crop than normal.
I am now harvesting Jonagolds- another bitter pit magnet for me, and although there is still some bitter pit, the problem is not nearly as serious as in previous years when the crop of this variety has been virtually useless- and the crop is very heavy with extremely large fruit… Pink Lady and Braebern also are showing no signs of bitter pit. Yet.
My trees tend to be overly vigorous and are on 7 or 111 rootstocks.
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