Can anyone tell me what this is on my apple tree? What's happening to the apple tree... ( photo / image / picture from Tammyd's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Tammyd's Garden )
Hi Tam, Tell me. is there a Huniper tree anywhere in the vacinity of your yard or the apple tree that you are showing here? The Juniper is the host for a type of sickness called "pear rust" here. the insulting organism is Gymnosporangium fuscum (or sabinae), a fungus. I wonder if you could take a picture of the underside of several older infected leaves to show if there are growths or not where the yellow-red patches are. It is difficult for me to see the leaves well, inspite of the excellent fotos that you have presented.
Yes I believe there are Juniper trees nearby. I am expecting everything we have to be rotting with fungus due to all of the rain we have had in this area. I will try to get the pic of the underside of the leaves when I get home from work today-if it's not still raining. Thank you Sjoerd.
Ok Tam... I hope that your problem is not this because it isvery difficult to treat. You can hand remove all the infected leaves and burn them or throw them away (not on the compost pile). Chemical intervention is possible (although I am not sure that there is an approved substance for private use) -- one agent is Eupareen by Bayer. The active ingredient is tolylfluanide, I believe. There are other chemicals that you can use should you choose to go this route. The Junipers are the culprets here, in that they are the co-host of G. fuscum and so long as they are present and infected....so will be your trees (more than likely). It is important to nate that not all junipers are suseptable to this fungus. Apple and pear trees and Junipers are the two hosts for the organism mentioned above. The infected juniper produces spores and they can float as far as 6 Km´s I have read to infect the apple orr pear tree which develop lesions themselves and in turn produce spores the float back and re-infect the juniper trees. A sort of viscious circle, you see. I know this all sounds a bit somber, but the first step is determining what is actually the infecting agent in your apple trees then you can go from there.
( photo / image / picture from Tammyd's Garden ) Ugh! That is disgusting. I hope there is a way to get rid of it and that it won't kill the tree. ( photo / image / picture from Tammyd's Garden )
Oh dear. I live in a very wooded area with the game reserve being at my back yard. There are tons of those juniper trees. We just planted another apple tree this spring. I hope it doesn't get infected as well.
Well Tamm, I have seen the most recent fotos and there seems little doubt that the infection is indeed that of Gymnosporangium fuscum. I think that if I were you I would seek some professional help there locally for the best way to treat this in your area. I have know gardners that have had apple and pear trees with this sickness and their trees are still alive. Perhaps the coinditions where you live are different from t5he conditions here, that's why I suggested that you seek help there. I know that people remove leaves and sometimes infected branches here to fight this thing, but with junipers atill around it's sort of pointless in a way. Good luck with this and please do keep me posted, I am interested to know how it goes.
Thank you. I will probably call the local extension office and get some advice. Again-thank you for all of the information. You are a great help and so knowledgeable. It's so corny, but I can't help but think of a common saying around here-"there's a fungus among us"....
Yes, Tammy, I hope your extension agency will be able to help you. I shouldn't be, but I am amazed that so many of our 'stewbies' are so right on about 'fungus among us' and other things. It's like having our own garden doctors! Thanks to all of you that are so very knowledgeable.
Hi Tammy, The discolouration on the top of the leaf looks like rust, but looking at the underside it actually looks a bit like a type of gall to me. These are generally caused by wasps or midges laying eggs on the leaf. The larvae that hatchout them create these structures to mature in until they are ready to emerge as adults. Practically the best thing to do is remove as many of the infected leaves as possible and burn them or throw them in the garbage. You could try a systemic insecticide as well.
