I have a row of mature trees on one corner of my lot, which I believe may be eastern red cedar, or some juniper variety (see below) I was trimming them back the other day, in preparation for the POCO putting in a new transformer, and it got me thinking about the apple trees I’ll be planting this season.
If I’ve never seen Cedar Apple Rust galls / Telia on the cedars, are they likely to not be an issue, or am I still at risk?
Also, is any of the concerning bacteria transmittable through the tree tools to trees (pole saws, loppers, etc)? If so, what’s the cleaning regimen?
Overall, I do not think CAR is a major concern in colorado, but having some of these trees on my property, I’d like to understand more before planting the new trees.
I would say it’s only a matter of time before it would happen if you have apples and junipers in proximity. You could consider apples that are more resistant to CAR. There are a number of them. I have some apples planted in the middle of, or close to junipers with no problem as long as they have resistance. It ultimately is maybe less of a problem for those apples than the junipers it seems. And those gloopy orange bombs falling off the trees are a bit disgusting.
It sounds like I’m not likely to transfer anything from Cedars without galls / Telia by use of the tools on both the cedars and apples, and that standard sanitation should be OK.
Only one apple tree that seriously objects to them… Gold Rush. It suffers pretty serious foilage issues… large red blotches with black centers … does not look good but really only seems to slow down the tree growth a little.
NovaMac, Early Mcintosh, Hudson Golden Gem and Akane are all planted near cedars and have very slight symptoms… little red spots on leaves occasionally… but nothing that affects them in any serious way. On most of those it is hardly noticable.
I live in far eastern Washington state, where common juniper is not common & western redcedar live only in very sheltered creek beds, alongside Oregon crabapple. Ever since I began growing apples in 2008 I have watched for symptoms of CAR on apples, wild or tame, junipers & redcedar. So far I have never seen it.
My region isn’t as high as yours (only 2,000+ feet), but it is quite dry. You probably have one of two junipers that obtain in CO & resemble your pictures: Utah Juniperus osteosperma or Rocky Mountain Juniperus scopulorum.
I am growing GoldRush & it has become my favorite apple tree. CAR has not shown its ugly head here in the 7 years it has lived with me.
GoldRush has these attributes: natural semi-dwarf (mine on Bud118 is 11 feet tall unpruned), sets its own scaffolds with little help, tough wood which handles crop loads & snow load on leaves, frost tolerant bloom - the only tree that produced fruit in '22 when we had a really cold & wet spring, mid-season pink bloom that overlaps most others, hard spicy fruit comes ripe for me 16 October & keeps to or thru May, 16 Brix from Christmas to May.
GoldRush tends to delay leaf drop, which hasn’t been a problem. Last spring I cut away leaves that might hide undesirable insects, but also, come to think of it, might harbor predatory insects & spiders.
I looked up CAR before writing this. What a bizarre life cycle: 5 kinds of spores in sequence.
BTW, there are two types of wild hawthorn growing out my way that also can get CAR. So far I haven’t seen evidence of this disease on them, either. I planted two Douglas hawthorn trees three years ago. One just finished blooming & the other is still in bloom (one probably a Columbia/Douglas hybrid). They are doing nicely. Too thorny & tough for delinquents walking by to mess with.
Thanks, Dave! That is quite an odd life cycle. I grafted a Gold Rush this year, but it will go into a container, as it’s pretty late and we get some early cold snaps.
I haven’t seen CAR yet, either, other than a spot or two on leaves of a mature apple… I was just at a horticulturist’s house to see his home orchard the other day and he has a juniper planted right next to the trees… he hasn’t seen any interaction yet, and probably has at least 18 different dwarf apples, so maybe it is a low/non-issue here. Fingers crossed!
I find GoldRush handles light frost easily. Last year at harvest the apples were at 14-16 Brix already. Pretty hard at that time, which is fine. Plenty of others to keep us in fresh fruit from September to Christmas.
