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Fruit & Orchards

Apple tree has weird disease

17 years ago

My apple tree is blossoming and trying to leaf out, but today I noticed that it has bumps and blister type organisms on the branches, some of which are round and red with spots. They are being tended by ants. They are NOT aphids, I looked closely. The round things are about 1-2 mm and smaller. They have yellow fluid inside. There are LOTS of these things. The apple tree right beside the afflicted one is fine. My first impulse is to spray with an oil winter spray, but will I injure the tree at this stage? What is it and what should I do?

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Comments (5)

chills71
17 years ago
scale, perhaps?

If so, horticultural oil is what I've used in the past (though never on apple trees, just haven't had the problem)

~CHills
Scott F Smith
17 years ago
It is some kind of mite or psylla or aphid thing. The ants give that away. Hit them with summer oil. Many oils work both as dormant and growing season, the latter at a much smaller dose. Read the instructions carefully to make sure you are mixing it properly for a growing season spray.

Scott
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my idea is that the leaves are dying or going dormant.. and are ready to fall off??? this time of year.. is not really time to start thinking about any type of chemical nor organic intervention .... pix will help ID it.. but at best.. full fall cleanup is usually the only thing to do in fall .. once a PROPER ID is made ... then you can think about prevention starting in spring ... are the other trees turning colors in the area?? ... if so.. i usually jump to the over simplification that all trees are dormant above at that time.. and though weird leaves is interesting.. its not much of a concern ... look forward to the pix.. and good luck ken
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Noticed this red discoloration on the leaf underside of my Rubinette apple tree today but don't recognize it as a disease. Can anyone identify this? Thanks.
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KInd of hard to tell from those pics. Looks like potentially fire blight. I assume they are on dwarf root stock since you have them attached to a trellis wire. I see almost zero growth. Looks like you may have had some poor quality trees from the get go. Did you do a soil test prior to planting? Did you water them in when planting and keep them watered? I dont know your location or what your weather has been like since planting.
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Heart rot is absolutely associated with those bracket fungi, which are the warning flag that the fungal organism is feeding on the non-living heart wood of your tree. Another certainty is that the fungus needs an opening in the bark to enter the body of the tree. These openings can be caused by insects, animal chewing on the bark, birds, branch breakage, and very commonly us. Poor pruning practices are an important cause of entry wounds. Maintain a healthy tree and it will live longer for you.
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Kristiina DiOrio
17 years ago
I'm in a similar boat. I'm pretty sure that I have scales on both my apples and my almond. What is this "oil" that you refer to? I've seen it mentioned before but don't know specifics. My trees that are afflicted have already leafed out this season. I'm getting ready to lay down some sevin granuals and do a little tangle foot to take care of the ants but need to address the scales. What is the difference between a winter spray and summer spray?

Sorry...I'm not hyjacking your thread. :-)

Kristiina
jean001
17 years ago
It ws said:
"It is some kind of mite or psylla or aphid thing. The ants give that away."

Ants tend plants which have pests producing honeydew.

The common honeydew producers are aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies, several sorts of scale (but not armored scale, which is sometimes called hard scale) and, on conifers, adelgids.

Mites don't produce honeydew.
geraldo
17 years ago
IMHO it's from aphids. I've always called these galls and they occur when the site has been infested with aphids for more than one year. I think wooley apple aphid, but I could be wrong about that. You can spray them with oil, but I think one sign of their presence is that your trees are too bushy. anyway that 's what I think, may be wrong.

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