Apple tree problems

[John-W-WI]

Can anyone help me identify what is wrong with this tree? It is 20 years old in a residential yard. Never had this problem before.

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[greyphase]

My guess would be fire blight.

 

[yoderjac]

He is probably right, but another thing that looks like that is cicada damage. Did you happen to have a hatch this year. If so, you would see it on more trees than just that apple.

 

[chickenlittle]

It doesn't look quite right for fire blight.
I'd expect the leaves to be darker/blacker and i don't notice many that have the shepherd's crook droop.

 

[Native Hunter]

It does resemble FB in some ways but in other ways not. Not saying it can’t happen, but I’ve not seen FB strike this late in the year. What I’ve seen is at flowering time. Not sure what it is. Would need to look closer. Agree that FB will usually cause black color of limbs.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I agree with Chickenlittle and Native. The FB I've seen turns leaves black and the "shepherd's crook" is pretty evident. I used to get FB most years on an ornamental pear in our yard. That pear was cut down to make room for a "SugarTyme" crab!

 

[Telemark]

Verticillium?

 

[TreeDaddy]

It does resemble FB in some ways but in other ways not. Not saying it can’t happen, but I’ve not seen FB strike this late in the year. What I’ve seen is at flowering time. Not sure what it is. Would need to look closer. Agree that FB will usually cause black color of limbs.

Flowering time during early springtime that is exceptionally warm and humid is the "perfect storm" in east texas

Its unmistakable once you see

bill

 

[Natty Bumppo]

John, we had some kind of caterpillar break out about 4 or 5 weeks ago here in the Northeast that did exactly that. It was fairly widespread. I'm pretty sure bowsnbucks had the same happen down in PA. I would monitor my trees and prune when I had a really bad limb. I used some Sevin as a control also. I was able to nip it mostly in the bud. But trees that I did not catch in time ended up looking almost exactly like yours.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^ Natty's comment - Now that you mention it, Natty, we did have a new (to me) caterpillar show up at camp. I only saw it on 2 trees and I gave them a good soaking in Sevin. The limbs did look like what those in John's pix do. They ate the crap out of a few limbs on each tree, but thankfully they didn't get farther. The leaves looked much like what John's do. I don't know if it's the same pest, but the look is very similar. Any FB I've seen turns things black.

 

[g squared 23]

I THINK this was fireblight that affected one and then two of my pear trees, and my partial amputation surgery was so far successful on saving the second. My leaves look darker than yours.


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[PoorSand]

I don't recognize the culprit, but I'll add to the list of ideas at least: root damage, herbicide damage, or invasive insect damage. Wish I could be of more help.