Sick apple question

[yoderjac]

Most of my seedlings and grafts are doing fine, but I have a few in trouble. Here is a picture of one:

This one is a graft. It was growing fine and strong and all of a sudden it went limp. At first I thought the graft may have failed even though it had put on a lot of growth. However, I have a number of seedlings where the graft failed and I simply let one of the buds below the graft become the new central leader. Many of them are the size of the growth in the picture or even bigger. A few of them are showing the same symptoms.

Any thoughts as to what is going on with these? I just staked this one to take the stress off the leader hoping it will recover.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[H20fwler]

It looks like it was off to a really good start.
Have you fertilized at all? I have had terrible results when using any kind of fertilizer the first year on new young grafts.
Are you getting enough water to it? Unlike nut trees fruit trees like moist soil when starting.

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, I did fertilize and maybe that was a mistake. I always use osmocote with my new seedlings, but these had one growing season under their belts. I added some 10-10-10 to the watering bin and let it dissolve. If it was only the grafted tree that looked like this I could blame it on fertilizing too soon after grafting. However, I had several seedlings where the grafts never budded out. Instead, I let one of the buds from below the graft grow out into a central leader. I have a couple of those that look the same.

As for water, they are getting plenty. I've noticed the same thing that my apple seedlings really seem to like water.

Many of my seedlings did have a pretty bad case of powdery mildew last summer and I was just learning how to deal with it. Last fall when they went dormant, I topped them and discarded the cuttings. I then wiped them down very good with immunox. When I woke them up, I sprayed them all again and then kept a careful watch. Any time I saw it starting I sprayed them again. Only a few of the trees continued to show any signs of it now and they are all growing well and none look like the one in the pic.

I was hoping someone might recognize this symptom and knew how to deal with it.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Prof.Kent]

Wilting, drooping leaves. I think we all know the problem.
Your tree is sad.
:-)
Probably from too much fertilizer. It got too much of something...heat, or maybe a dislodged graft joint.

 

[yoderjac]

I think you guys nailed it. I think I just realized what happened. I like to use rain water and it can be a precious commodity at times. I make efficient use of it by using a watering tub and immersing my RB2s in it and then putting them on a drain table to collect the drainage for reuse. Since these seedlings are a year old, I've been adding some 10-10-10 each time I top off the tub with 10 gal of water. Only a few trees had the issue so I was trying to figure out how they were struggling while the others were prospering.

When you use a watering tub, slowly over time, small amounts of medium end up in the tub and settle to the bottom. It forms kind of a silt. I got into the habit of scooping up some of this silt and topping off RB2s when the medium settled every now and then. This has never been an issue in the past. In the past, I always used miracle grow fertilizer in the water. It is a water soluble fertilizer that dissolves quickly so it is evenly distributed throughout the water.

While any fertilizer will dissolve in water eventually, it takes the 10-10-10 much longer. Some of it probably settled to the bottom and dissolved in the "silt" at the bottom. I found the common thing with these few trees that failed. They were all in the group that I topped of with the "silt". There are others that I topped of that did not have this issue but none that I did not top off with the "silt" were affected. I'm guessing the fertilizer was not evenly distributed through the silt so that a few that were topped off got excess and the ones that were topped of but not affected got some but less.

Thanks for the help and ideas,

Jack

 

[Prof.Kent]

I think you guys nailed it. I think I just realized what happened. I like to use rain water and it can be a precious commodity at times. I make efficient use of it by using a watering tub and immersing my RB2s in it and then putting them on a drain table to collect the drainage for reuse. Since these seedlings are a year old, I've been adding some 10-10-10 each time I top off the tub with 10 gal of water. Only a few trees had the issue so I was trying to figure out how they were struggling while the others were prospering.

When you use a watering tub, slowly over time, small amounts of medium end up in the tub and settle to the bottom. It forms kind of a silt. I got into the habit of scooping up some of this silt and topping off RB2s when the medium settled every now and then. This has never been an issue in the past. In the past, I always used miracle grow fertilizer in the water. It is a water soluble fertilizer that dissolves quickly so it is evenly distributed throughout the water.

While any fertilizer will dissolve in water eventually, it takes the 10-10-10 much longer. Some of it probably settled to the bottom and dissolved in the "silt" at the bottom. I found the common thing with these few trees that failed. They were all in the group that I topped of with the "silt". There are others that I topped of that did not have this issue but none that I did not top off with the "silt" were affected. I'm guessing the fertilizer was not evenly distributed through the silt so that a few that were topped off got excess and the ones that were topped of but not affected got some but less.

Thanks for the help and ideas,

Jack

Sooo... I was right. It was sad!

 

[yoderjac]

Yes, they were unhappy!