Hello Everyone! What a great source of information I just stumbled upon! I can't believe how active this forum is, and how much information appears to be contained in here. My botanical journey is just beginning, and I suspect I'll be coming back here time and time again. So here's my first question! We recently purchased a home in Calgary. In the front yard is what appears to be an crab apple/apple tree. One of the neighbours believed it was an actual apple tree, he also helped me with some pruning this afternoon as I was hopeless. Our neighbour told us that although this tree has been completely ignored for the last 10 years, it had an amazing amount of healthy fruit on it last year. This year, the tree already looks like it is completely dead. 60% of the leaves/flowers have wilted and about half the tree had to be completely removed. A good portion of the branches were completely dead (snapped right in half with no signs of green on the inside). Other portions have a dark black discoloration happening. When you look up close, the sap is actually oozing out of these sections. I tried to look around to identify possible apple tree diseases, but couldn't find anything with these symptoms. Can someone point me in the right direction? I can take pictures, or provide further details if needed. I LOVE the fact that we have an apple tree in the yard, I really don't want to lose it so identifying what's wrong would be the first step in saving it! Thanks so much!
Fire blight, maybe? Please do post photos: always a great help in diagnosing problems. Yes, this forum is GREAT! You will enjoy it, and learn a tremendous amount of useful and fascinating information. It's a trip around the world every day! Forum members from EVERYWHERE let you see plants and flowers you've never heard of before---the beauty and variety is constantly amazing. Get with the photos so that we can help you and the tree---and, welcome! (P.S.: Go Calgary Flames! Maybe next year...)
Hi Togata57! Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the delay, I kept looking for our digital camera and just couldn't track it down! I ended up taking some pictures with my blackberry. Hopefully the resolution isn't too bad. The first picture is of the wilting that is happening. Basically 1 week the tree was completely healthy and green and within 3 days half the tree looked like this. Second picture is of the "burning" that is happening on the branches. This happened to about 1/2 the tree so far. I've cut off a fair bit of it, but even within the last 2 days more is forming. You likely can't see it to well, but there is orange coloured sap coming out of the branch as well. This didn't happen all over the tree, but in a few of the real bad areas. Third picture was taken just below the last picture. This is a shot of the healthy part of the tree to show you some contrast. Let me know if you need better pics! I would love to have someone take a stab at what they think it might be, and what I could try to do to treat it. I REALLY DON'T WANT TO LOSE THIS TREE!!! Thanks in advance for taking the time to help me out! Ps- GO FLAMES GO! :D Assuming we can stay healthy this next year should be GREAT!
