It's worse in wet years.

Best way to control is to find some of the orange fungal bodies on juniper trees and moniter them. When they get all jelly-like, it's time to spray a fungicide like Immunox.

ltilton. Thanks

My trees just appeared with CAR a few days ago, so to answer your question, it wasn't too late in April...

You don't need to really worry about CAR, IME, until the apples lose their petals. Any earlier infection can be knocked out with Immuox after the fact, and a few spots on the leaves isn't really an issue anyway. If you want pristine leaves every season, you can also add Immunox to a delayed dormant oil spray.

It is about when the fungus can hurt the trees and especially the apples, not necessarily about when spores are around.

Itilton has been advocating inspecting junipers for years here, but you can stay focused on your fruit trees and control CAR when you are controlling other fungus issues and insect pests and reduce your efforts for equal results.

This has been my approach for about a quarter a century and I've never suffered serious setback from CAR at any of the sites I manage- never lost any crop to scab either, although I have had to come back with some extra spray at a few sites with that one, but even that is rare.

I'm in southeast NY where CAR and SCAB are rampant and I manage hundreds of susceptible trees. I know it sounds like bragging, but I'm only trying to provide confidence that you probably don't need to spray any more than I say.

For years!?

Hman, I agree that the petal fall spray for scab will likely be sufficient control for CAR in most years and circumstances. But some people may not be spraying for scab and just CAR.

Anyway, my apples are starting petal fall and the galls are coming out.

Itt, It seems like years, but my sense of time is fading. It's not that I don't feel yours is a legitimate and astute observation, but cedars are not always nearby and the apple trees are. I think it more useful to go by the phenology of the apple trees themselves as I've found it to be entirely adequate.