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Apple Tree Diseases: How to Treat Them

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Due to prevalent apple trees disease, producing apples can be difficult. Here are common diseases found in apple trees, their symptoms, and how to possibly treat them.

 People appreciate apple fruits across the globe for their sweet and tangy flavor. Juicy, delectable, and crisp to bite into, apples are highly liked fruit throughout the world. Apples are members of the rose family (Rosaceae), which is susceptible to various pestilence.

Unfortunately, due to prevalent apple trees disease, producing apples can be difficult. The weather you expose your apple trees to, the soil in which you have planted it, and whether you properly care for it can predict if your apple tree will die of disease or flourish. Fortunately, it is simple to determine whether or not your apple tree is infected.

The first step is to identify the disease so you can help your tree recover. Here are common diseases found in apple trees, their symptoms, and how to possibly treat them:

Gall  Crown

The bacteria that causes gall crown uses its genes to produce tumors; what you see on your tree as a tumor growth is gall crown.

apple tree diseasee

Symptoms

Your apple tree appears to have grown; the gall begins light in color but darkens over time. Growth Range in size from pea size to be as extensive as a foot in diameter. The majority of the growth will bear near the soil line, but some will be on the upper part of the stem.

Treatment 

You apply Paint containing antibiotics to the growth. The color should not cover more than half the stem. Garlic is another solution that you can use to treat and possibly reduce the gain.

Powdery Mildew

The fungus Pedosphere leucotricha causes powdery mildew on apple trees. It disrupts leaf function, slows shoot growth, and reduces fruit set. They also cause netlike russets on the apple fruit.

Symptoms

Leaves of an infected tree curl upwards and are quickly covered in a floury spore coating. Infections on lush leaves and developing hoots lower the overall growth of the shoot. Leaves and branches may become brown by summertime.

Treatment

When shoots show evidence of powdery mildew infection, you should trim them off the tree. Spray fungicide directly on the mildew-infested leaves and branches. The diseased buds will have a 3-4 days delay in opening. 

The fungus of the powdery mildew covers the leaves and blooms with a white to light grey powder.

Apple Scab

Apple scab can cause total leaf loss of an apple tree by mid-summer, making the tree vulnerable to other diseases. It is the most common disease affecting apple trees caused by ascomycete fungus Venturia inaequlis

Symptoms

The upper surface of the leaves turns yellow or olive green. Dark velvety patches may emerge on the lower surface. Severely diseased leaves become twisted and drop from the tree early in the summer.

Fruit symptoms are more or less the same as those reported on leaves. The fruit develops velvety spores in the middle. These spots grow in size and become brown as they mature. 

Infected fruit gets deformed and may crack; this gives way to secondary organisms to enter. Severely harmed fruits may drop, especially if they are young.

pests apple scab opt

Treatment

Preventing apple scabs is the most effective approach to therapy. Select resistant apple tree kind. 

Another treatment for apple scabs is to rake and dispose of the infected leaves that have fallen. Nitrogen can be applied to fallen leaves to hasten their decomposition making them more appealing to earthworms. This lessens the chances of fungus spores lasting the winter and infecting your trees.

Take care not to harm the trees while planting and pruning them. Trees with open wounds are more prone to fungal infections. When pruning, always sterilize your pruners with alcohol before using them again on another tree.

Do not overcrowd the trees when planting; use trees that are fully grown as a yardstick for spacing. You should prune the branches and make them evenly spaced, allowing for optimal airflow.

Eliminate any suckers and water sprouts that grow along the main trunk. Avoid getting the leaves wet when watering young apple trees. 

Another approach to treating apple scabs is by applying dolomitic lime during fall to improve soil Ph and minimize the quantity of fungus that lives on until spring. In severe circumstances, treat apple scab with a fungicide.

Fire Blight

Fire blight is a damaging disease produced by the bacteria Erwinia amylovova that flourish in warm, humid, and rainy weather during the start of the season. 

It is very easily transmitted when heavy rainfall microorganisms hang onto leaves, pruning when you have not cleaned cutting blades—pollinators transport germ from blossom to flower. A single contaminated shoot can create millions of bacteria spreading to other trees.

Symptoms

Infections look like discolored damp patches on the tree’s bark with areas of dead or rotting sapwood around their margins. Shoot, offshoots, and branches are wilting or dead. The leaves turn into a burnt-looking color and die. Fruit spurs are also infected or dead.

fire blight branch apple tree

Treatment

You can control fire blight using an antibiotic spray. The most used spray is known as the Bordeaux combination. It was invented in the 19th century in the same-named wine-growing area of France. 

You can easily make Bordeaux at home. All you need is to mix water, copper sulfate, and lime.

One advantage of utilizing a Bordeaux combination over a plain copper-based spray is that the mixture adheres to trees during the rainy season, whereas copper spray washes away. 

Using shears, remove all the infected branches to avoid contamination dip the shears in a disinfectant solution after each cut. 

Discard the components at least 100ft away from your apple trees. Avoid using high nitrogen fertilizer because it promotes lush new vegetation, which attracts fire-blight bacteria. Try and choose the resistant variety of apple trees.

Conclusion

Appletree disease is of great concern to orchard growers. Call a tree care specialist if you see any alarming symptoms in your apple orchard. If you neglect your apple tree illness, it could become lethal, infect nearby appley trees, or wipe out your produce.

EyouAgro provides the best netting products and services for your apple trees. Our products are easily affordable, and they come along with a warranty and short delivery time. We have different types of products as per your requirements such as reflective ground screen and film. Our major goal is to make life easy for orchard growers and help them take good care of their fruits. Our services are the best, and you can’t afford to miss them.

Kindly contact us at info@eyouagro.com or visit https://eyouagro.com for more information.

Hey, I’m Kevin Lyu, the founder of eyouagro.com , Family-run business
An expert of agriculture protection textile specialist .
In the past 26 years, we have helped 55 countries and 150+ Clients like farms, orchards , vineyards to protect their plants. The purpose of this article is to share with the knowledge related to agriculture growing protection for making the plant healthier and stronger.
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