I manage many apple trees well over a century old. If the tree suffered a sudden set back it is probably not related to senescence. Apple trees tend to die back gradually- at least here in the northeastern U.S. Your tree doesn't even look any where near that old to me- it has the bark of a tree under 50, but as I say, I may manage hundreds of old apple trees, but they are all in the northeast with completely different conditions. Haven't you had severe flooding fairly recently? Maybe the tree drowned during a long wet period. If you have heavy soil or any drainage issues this would be my first guess judging from the pictures. If this is the case, the tree may surprise you and recover if conditions have returned to normal.

We are seeing a variety of possible causes with this string of pearls problem. Some are overfed and might have got too hot or anerobic, others like smalltowngal knows she did not overfeed. Some think their food/bedding was too acid while other people say they feed the same thing with no problem. And borderbarb found a single worm with the same symptoms. It supports my thinking that the SOP appearance is what a dying worm looks like for whatever reason. People are noticing them because they are looking closer. I'm thinking another cause may be a viral/bacterial infection. If it is,there is nothing you can do, except let the surviving/healthy worms reproduce and hope they are resistant in the future. Think of it as a bin epidemic. What we have in a bin situation is actually a very intensive population density. We try to maximize the population for our conditions so we get the highest production of VC. It is a matter of time before something disrupts the system. I suspect cyclic problems happen more often than we guess. It's just it is not observed and sometimes not as big a percentage of worms die at once.

Hi Farmer Joe! I see that you are in North Carolina! My Father's family is from North Carolina and those lines all go back to before the American Revolution. There is a wealth of American History in North Carolina! The worms I found at the bottom of the compost pile were BOTH "red worms" and "Night-Crawlers". I think that most have survived and reproduced in the garden area because I add composable material there as well (leaves and grass clippings for mulch). I haven't checked my "Worm Capture Experiment" this past week. I'll take a look this afternoon or tomorrow to see if there is any evidence of worms (I doubt it, since the evenings are well below 32 degrees.....but maybe come Spring, I'll "capture" some local worms...???) I appreciate your reply to my posting! By the way, some of my favorite veggies to grow in the garden are hot peppers and, of course, tomatoes. Do you grow hot peppers? Best Regards, Bruce (Junkmanme in New Mexico)

Hi We have a big old apple tree in our garden that has always been healthy and given us big cooking apples but it has what looks like a serious problem. We noticed two years ago that some of the bark was coming away and underneath were tiny, rice-like grains (look like bugs of some sort). There are some wood-worm looking holes in some areas too. Last year a few tiny apples grew and fell quickly. This year the tree blossomed a bit but we have no apples and the few leaves that came out are shrivelling and turning yellow and brown. The bark on the lower half has been a rusty colour for a while too, not sure if that's anything to do with it. I have searched some apple tree problems but can't find anything that matches ours, hopefully someone will recognise it?