I have had the same problem with my Pink Lady, but for me it's more dire as a good snow storm will wipe out the branches. I ended up stripping the leaves off by holding the top of each branch with one hand and running the other hand down the branch. I found that a loose hold will break off the leaves but hopefully not the buds. Even a 4-year-old tree took a while to strip. I don't recall having this problem before. The leaves were still fairly green and I am quite puzzled about this. We've been down to 10F and the leaves looked "evergreen".

Very common for us here in S. California, silent. Most of us don't do anything. If you spray with copper, then the leaves will fry and drop. Otherwise, come spring with the new flush, the old leaves will drop on their own. This is very common in our low chill areas with lower chill apple trees. My Fuji's and Pink Lady are doing the same thing, and my Anna hasn't even dropped its leaves, yet. My Spice-Zee nectaplum also has its leaves, still, as with several other of my stone fruits.

Patty S.

Milehighgirl - I did that with my fuji last winter but that was after it had lost about half its leaves and then stopped losing the with a small bout of warmer weather. Is it really okay to just take them all off??

Hoosierquilt - How do you prune yours? Do you just prune them with the leaves on? And do you recommend a copper spray?

You'll want to strip the Anna by hand and spray dormant oil before it blossoms in mid-January. The others can wait until spring, but the dormant oil helps keep things tidy.

Even here on the Central Coast with an unusual string of very cold nights I had to strip my little peach and plum trees which looked like it was Spring. I stripped apples and cherries already. Like Applenut says, it makes spraying and general hygiene much easier--especially important for a damp climate like mine. Also easier to see what you're doing when pruning.

Really just take all the leaves off? :0 okay.. :0

Yes; manual leaf-stripping is standard operating proceedure for apple trees in the tropics.