sad apricot

12 years ago

I have an apricot tree that suddenly has the edges of most of its leaves curling under. As in, they weren't curled yesterday morning and now they are.
I "temporarily" planted it in a pot last summer, and brought it down to my basement for the winter so the roots wouldn't freeze, but changes to the insulation in our house seem to have kept it warmer down there than in past years, and the plants I was trying to keep dormant woke up much earlier than expected. And winter outside continued longer than expected. So, it was pretty leafed out, but blanched, by the time I brought it up, and had a bit of an aphid problem. The pale leaves ended up getting spotty, and I plucked off the problem ones.
It was looking like it would make an uneventful recovery, then today it seems to have a mystery leaf-curling ailment, and Google isn't shedding any light on the situation. Nothing seems to fit! There are no longer any signs of insects of any kind on the tree. No pink/red "blisters" like in the peach leaf curl pictures. The other apricot leafroll disease I found causes the leaves to curl upward. The tree hasn't been outside yet, so not cold damage.
Any other suggestions?
I tried to take some pictures, but need better light to be able to see anything.

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Comments (5)

Bradybb WA-Zone8
12 years ago
It still sounds like Aphids to me Christy.If possible,maybe blast it with a spray of water,especially the undersides of the leaves.
Safer Soap can also be used or some made from about four to five tablespoons of Dawn or Palmolive dish soap per gallon of water or four teaspoons of soap per quart.These make it about a two percent solution.The home made stuff should be washed off the next day if more soap is used than that. Brady
marknmt
12 years ago
Be sure you are not over-watering the 'cot. They like to dry out thoroughly between waterings and are easy to drown. They actually look like they aren't getting enough water when this is happening, leading people to water them again.
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Scott F Smith
12 years ago
Did it recently get sunny? It sounds like you had the plant out of sun and its in lots of sun now and is suffering. The leaves will be more dull colored and droopy if this is the problem. You can put up a shade cloth if it is sunny now.

Scott
ChristyRocNY
Original Author
12 years ago
It's sitting in my kitchen, so more sun than it had in the basement, but it's probably been in the kitchen window for about a month now. If anything, it's sitting a little farther away from the light than it had been, since I moved it back to make room for a tray of veggie seedlings.

Is it possible to drown an apricot if there's no tray underneath the pot? That's what I might have thought the problem was, but with holes in the bottom of the pot and nothing to keep water from running out all over the floor, I tend to water cautiously. It had seemed quite dry before we went away, though, so I did give it several good drinks before we left.

I'm pretty sure there aren't any aphids still on the tree. It's a small thing and I've really looked. It might be suffering from a virus that aphids would have transmitted, but I really don't think they're there anymore.
marknmt
12 years ago
I don't absolutely know that it's possible to drown a cot in a pot with no tray underneath, but I would bet it is. Your potting mix would matter- something I have very little experience in. May well be something else. (I do have too much experience in killing apricots!)

Good luck.