Did You Get Your Shots? 5/10/21

Our flowering crab apple trees did.

Last year the leaves on our three flowing crab apple trees, especially the two order trees, showed lower than usual bloom production in the spring and rust on the leaves with significant leaf lose in the late summer. An arborist diagnosed the issue as Apple Scab, a common fungal infection also known as Apple Rust, and suggested spraying the trees with a fungicide on a set schedule.

The arborist also noticed a few tips of limbs that were wilted, had turned brown-black and were bent, which he indicated was the onset of Fire Blight, a bacterial disease to flowering crab apples that can kill blossoms and shoots and cause branches to die back. There is no cure, but if found early it can be controlled by injections of antibiotics and pruning. A small hole is drilled into cambium layer just below the bark and 4ml of an antibiotic is injected. The number of injection sites is based on the diameter of the tree trunk.

The result of the spraying and injection regiment were apparent this spring - full and colorful blooms.