CAR question

[BrushyPines]

Just a general question here about spraying for CAR. My crabs are around 5 years old and have only been in the ground for a year, so they are a ways off from producing. Just about every one of them has CAR, but does not look as bad as some of Native's trees he has posted. I dont have any pics of the CAR or I would post them. Since they are a ways off from producing, would you guys even spray for CAR right now? Or just wait to spray closer to when the trees start producing?

 

[chickenlittle]

First, make sure it is CAR. Scab, Marssonina, frogeye are some other fungal diseases that hit the foliage. Fungicide and timing will vary to control.

The benefit of spraying now is to help the tree grow and get established with full support of the leaves. They might struggle with leaves affected. Or they might be fine with this level of infection. Until it fruits, you won’t know how productive they’ll be without spray. Spraying young trees can help get them off to a great start. Or just delay dealing with the issue.

I’d consider grafting something CAR resistant onto them so you know you’ll have something good for the long term.

 

[b116757]

I have a haralson tree that gets CAR not bad enough to kill it so it must have some resistance and it produces pretty well most years even with the CAR. My orchard is NO Spray I simply will not bother with planting verities that require spraying to fruit. I cut down all my peach trees because of this, waste of my time to fool with them better to use the space for Enterprise or Liberty that require nothing but a bit of pruning and maybe some fertilizer if I’m feeling generous towards my trees. I’d rather the trees either do well with minimal help from me or be replaced with known good cultivars for my area. I personally would see how they fair on their own if the CAR is effecting them to much top work them to something else.

 

[Bill]

Does it ever just go away?
I had what I thought was CAR on a cedar tree next to a food plot a few years back. It was only that one summer and I never noticed it again.

 

[BrushyPines]

I have a haralson tree that gets CAR not bad enough to kill it so it must have some resistance and it produces pretty well most years even with the CAR. My orchard is NO Spray I simply will not bother with planting verities that require spraying to fruit. I cut down all my peach trees because of this, waste of my time to fool with them better to use the space for Enterprise or Liberty that require nothing but a bit of pruning and maybe some fertilizer if I’m feeling generous towards my trees. I’d rather the trees either do well with minimal help from me or be replaced with known good cultivars for my area. I personally would see how they fair on their own if the CAR is effecting them to much top work them to something else.

The thing is, I have no clue what each individual crab is. I ordered from Nativ Nurseries and they send a variety of seedlings without telling you what is what. All I know is I could possibly have Dolgo, Centennial, Transendent, Chestnut, Whitney and Prairie. I've tried to identify them by leaf, but its hard to because most leaves of those varieties look the same. Or from what google is telling me

 

[homerj1]

The thing is, I have no clue what each individual crab is. I ordered from Nativ Nurseries and they send a variety of seedlings without telling you what is what. All I know is I could possibly have Dolgo, Centennial, Transendent, Chestnut, Whitney and Prairie. I've tried to identify them by leaf, but its hard to because most leaves of those varieties look the same. Or from what google is telling me

If they're seedlings it doesn't matter what variety name is associated with them. Each will be an individual variety in and of itself.

 

[BrushyPines]

If they're seedlings it doesn't matter what variety name is associated with them. Each will be an individual variety in and of itself.

So what you're saying is they'll have traits of each variety?

 

[gunfun13]

Does it ever just go away?
I had what I thought was CAR on a cedar tree next to a food plot a few years back. It was only that one summer and I never noticed it again.

I think some years are just worse than others. I had fruit on a NWC 10 Point get hit hard last year by CAR, this year only some minor leaf spotting.

 

[homerj1]

So what you're saying is they'll have traits of each variety?

They may have traits of both parents, or neither.

 

[BrushyPines]

They may have traits of both parents, or neither.

Confusing. So what is the best way at identifying them? Or is there any way?

 

[homerj1]

Confusing. So what is the best way at identifying them? Or is there any way?

You can't identify a seedling as Transcendent, Whitney, or anything else. They are seedlings. Unless the fruit from which the seeds were obtained were hand pollinated (and all other pollen excluded), it would require a DNA test to identify the second parent. I wouldn't worry about what their parents were, I'd worry about the characteristics each seedling possess. e.g. one open pollinated Whitney seedling may show some CAR resistance while another may be a CAR magnet.

 

[gunfun13]

You can't identify a seedling as Transcendent, Whitney, or anything else. They are seedlings. Unless the fruit from which the seeds were obtained were hand pollinated (and all other pollen excluded), it would require a DNA test to identify the second parent. I wouldn't worry about what their parents were, I'd worry about the characteristics each seedling possess. e.g. one open pollinated Whitney seedling may show some CAR resistance while another may be a CAR magnet.

Common practice with Dolgo, what couldn't you identify others as seedlings of the parent variety?

 

[homerj1]

Common practice with Dolgo, what couldn't you identify others as seedlings of the parent variety?

Dolgo seedlings are just that. Seedlings. They are not the same as a grafted Dolgo. Some dolgo seedlings may have similar qualities to a grafted Dolgo. Many won't.

 

[chickenlittle]

And a grafted Dolgo depends on which Dolgo they choose to graft. Different nurseries likely are selling genetically different grafted Dolgos.

 

[b116757]

Some years are worse than others but I always have CAR to some extent. We have Eastern Red Cedar trees everywhere here where I am it’s simply something we deal with every year. Killed both my Honey Crisp trees within about two years back to the graft. Haralson always has leaf spots some very wet years it’s worse. Last summer my middle boy was walking around with me and kept cutting the tentacle galls out of multiple cedars he thought they where groovy had handful of them on my truck dash before I knew what he was up to. Nasty looking things.

 

[b116757]

Tips For Cedar Apple Rust Control

If you're noticing unusual-looking, green-brown growths on your cedar tree, you may have been infected by cedar apple rust. Find out more about the disease and its management in this article.

www.gardeningknowhow.com

 

[Apple Junkie]

Crabapples are pretty tough to start with, and if don’t know what you’ve got, I’d just let them grow for a year or two and see what signs of disease, if any, show up. If you see a problem developing, you can address it once you know what you’re looking at. Seedlings are like mutts, most end up being pretty healthy. It's more important to give them some good protection from critters and weeds first. Good luck.

 

[Native Hunter]

A guy on the other forum from Indiana planted 100 seedling crabapples from a state nursery. He ended up whacking down 95 of them and keeping 5. You could do better or worse. I suggest topworking your trees to known varieties that are highly disease resistant. That's what I do with anything that doesn't work out. I love experimenting as well as the next guy, but I eventually want at least something worthwhile for my effort. Good luck.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Why would you choose to wait SEVERAL years for crab apple production from trees that may not produce anything worth having. I understand everyone has a budget, but if you had went with grafted trees you would already have considerable production of a proven variety.

 

[PoorSand]

My experience with CAR is pretty limited, but I do want to say that if your trees are now five years old, you are five years ahead of a lot of other guys and have something you can work with.

If you have little or no grafting experience, you could watch a few how-to videos on YouTube, cut a couple sticks off a tree of a known variety owned by somebody you know, and graft them onto a few lower limbs you might be thinking about pruning off anyway. If the grafts take, you will gain confidence to change all the branches over to some CAR-resistant variety the next year. If the trial grafts don't take, nothing is lost.