Are your Apple Trees experiencing SAD?
Contributors to this thread:New York
From: Squash
05-Sep-17
This is the first I've heard of this apple tree problem. The leaves on my apple trees look bad but I was thinking it was Japanese beetles ? Hopefully it's not what you are talking about.
From: onepin
05-Sep-17
I was just at my property in Hancock this weekend with a couple hundred apple trees and the leaves look half dead on a lot of trees but covered in fruit. Hope they stick around for another month or two.
From: Squash
05-Sep-17
I read on a Cornell site, that for now it seems to only affect dwarf trees with M9 rootstock. I hope this is true, my trees are full size and Antonovka rootstock.
From: Buckstopshere
05-Sep-17
Well that's a bummer. I have noticed that my crab apple trees that help out so much with the pollination of my apple trees have lost most of their leaves...after a bumper crop of fruit. I've seen them look bad before..., especially after a heavy fruiting. Seems like the year's when there is a big crop of apples... it sucks all the energy out of the leaves...but they bounce back after another year.
From: Buckstopshere
05-Sep-17
One thought...just a speculation...is your apple orchard near where you are using herbicides to enhance your plots? One would think that tons of herbicide to control plants in the plots over the years might...could...possibly have an exponential effect on the chemistry of the soil which your apple trees are feeding on.
From: tompolaris
06-Sep-17
Pat, My trees look exactly like you describe. I did snap a few bottom branches and they are live and well, just a terrible looking lower half. In Connecticut
From: bow shot
06-Sep-17
Huge, ancient as well as young trees in my area exhibit this condition. upper portions look fairly normal , both fruit and leaves, but lower branches have shed their leaves, some fruit clinging on them. Never seen the like in 30 years living here. Very, very wet year but I have no evidence that it is a factor.
From: Shawn
06-Sep-17
All the trees in my area look fine and are loaded with fruit. The only issue is a lot of the apples have some type of blight or something as they all have blisters or dark spots. The fruit taste fine and is sweet but don't look real good. Shawn
From: Denali
07-Sep-17
my Pear tree turned black and is still pliable on the stems. I am going to burn the leaves away from all of the trees. Tons of apples and crabapples though. Gonna make hunting hard. Food is everywhere.
