I lost two crabapples to this the last couple of years. One by one, leaves on a branch go brown and die. Then the branch dies. Then more branches die.
It got my franken-apple last year, one grafted branch at a time.
Now it’s starting on my Gala. Took off a limb last week, but I can tell it’s just the beginning.
I use Immunox for scab and rust - this isn’t either of those.
It sounds like fireblight
Found this on my Gold Rush recently… I took that branch off a foot or more below it.
This winter I will remove a bit more.
Gold Rush is supposed to be resistent to FB… hope it survives it.
Over the past 20 years… I have had several apple and pear trees to die of FB.
Good luck to you !
If it were fire blight, I would think the attack would happen rather quickly instead of one branch at a time.
Could it be soil borne disease?
Could be FB. But I don’t see any ooze or cankering or shepherd’s crooks on the branch tips. Suppose I’ll just have to keep my eye out for new occurance
On my GR in addition to the browned blossom cluster… I had a few of these.
Think that is the classic shepherds crook you mentioned ??
I remember my pear trees doing that years ago when they died of FB… but they turned a very dark brown almost black. Looked like they had been burned.
Pears tend to go black - I don’t think apples do.
Sounds like and looks like fireblight if it attacks the whole tree branch by branch. Cut it out ASAP and disinfect the tools you use. See if that helps. I had it on my pear tree and one apple tree. I just dug them out to prevent the FB from traveling to my other trees. Probably overkill but it was into the main trunk as well.
Odd, though, if I have FB spreading yet only to apples, pears untouched
Got photos ?
Limb is cut off and gone now
There are many strains. For me it was rarely the pears, but occasionally it was only the pears. It seemed like there were different strains passing through based on that, some liked apples some liked pears.
Anyway post a picture next time. I would guess fireblight only because I can’t think of anything else that does that. It sounds like brown rot blossom blight except that apples don’t get it, only stone fruits do.
