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Fruit & Orchards

My poor crab apple

11 years ago

Last September we moved in to a house with a big old crab apple - it produced lots of fruit last year and seemed fine. We recognize that it needs a drastic pruning, but we didn't have time this spring. Now, after flowering, the tips of the branches have gone brown and crispy. Lots of leaves have fallen off and I can't see any fruit setting. I'm not sure if it is wither tip or fireblight or something else. Some photos are below. What should we do? Is it saveable or will it just get worse? Thanks for your help.

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Comments (4)

dmtaylor
11 years ago
Fireblight. Remove all diseased wood, sanitizing your pruners with every snip, and burn it. This was a really bad year for fireblight. In future years you can spray to kill/prevent this.
sautesmom Sacramento
11 years ago
Spray for preventing fireblight? I thought that wasn't possible. What do you spray? Here UC Davis mentions copper, but it also says it won't do anything for fireblight already in the system of the tree.

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7414.html
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glenn_russell
11 years ago
Carla-
Sure you can spray AgriStrep for FB. I do.
I also use copper while the tree is still dormant, but agree that you can't use that at this time of year.
-Glenn
flora_uk
11 years ago
RHS advice (the OP is in the UK) is that there is no specific chemical control for fireblight.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fireblight

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