Need help diagnosing Apple and Apricot problems

13 years ago

Hello,
I need some help figuring out what is going with a couple of my fruit trees. First some general info, these trees where planted about 6 years ago in very sandy soil, which over the past 6 year we have added a lot of compost to. In previous years they have had occasional problems, but since they weren't bearing yet i didn't worry to much about it. This year has been a great growing season for most things as it has been very rainy (and water is usually the limiting factor for our garden, due to the sandy soil), but i think being constantly wet is starting to catch up with these trees.

Apricot:
Had a good crop last year, which dropped when they where ~90% ripe (so they where still quite tasty!), this year it bloomed fine, but then dropped a lot of fruit right away and in the last week all the remaining fruit has dropped. A lot of the leaves have withered and dropped.

Apple:
Had one apple last year, this year it bloomed heavy, but set no fruit, leafed out just fine, but some leaves are turning brown and crispy.

This post was edited by infiniteohms on Wed, Jul 3, 13 at 22:03

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Comments (5)

fruitnut Z7 4500ft SW TX
13 years ago
Your photos don't show up and can't be linked. Please post the photos properly if you can.
infiniteohms
Original Author
13 years ago
sorry about the bad links, here are the photos
Apricot:
{{gwi:120473}} {{gwi:120474}} {{gwi:120475}} {{gwi:120476}}

Apple:
{{gwi:120477}} {{gwi:120478}} {{gwi:120479}}
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dmtaylor
13 years ago
I know nothing about apricot, but regarding the apple:

Looks like aphid damage. Have you sprayed insecticide? Also, aphids are always "farmed" by ants -- the aphids drink the sap from young apple leaves, causing them to curl and turn brown. The ants put the aphids there to drink the juices they secrete. So, get rid of all the ants, and the aphids shouldn't be a problem.

Is there any other apple tree nearby to pollinate this tree? Most apples are not self-pollinating, so without another apple variety around, this tree would not ever fruit. There is a shortcut though. If you don't have another tree and don't want to wait 6-7 years for another one to begin to flower for cross-pollination, you can graft some more varieties onto your existing tree and they will likely begin to flower within a couple of years.

Hope this helps.
bob_z6
13 years ago
The easiest way I've found to control aphids is to stop the ants from going up the tree with Tanglefoot. Just wrap a single layer of masking tape on the trunk and smear it with tanglefoot. You also need to make sure you cut off any alternate routes the ants may take, such as support stakes. Without the ants, I get very little aphid damage (my understanding is that predators take care of them).
Scott F Smith
13 years ago
On the apricot it looks like brown rot shoot blight on the tips plus some bacterial spot on the more mature leaves. Google for pix of those guys.

Scott