Violas Crab in trouble?

[Peeps]

This tree looked fine all year and even has some apples on it. Last saw it 2 weeks ago and it was green. Now it looks like this. Any ideas as to what’s going on with it? It was planted in 16 from SLN.

 

[b116757]

Fireblight in that one branch or maybe some sort of boring insect under the bark of that one branch??? It doesn’t appear that the entire tree is dying at least not yet.

 

[homerj1]

Borer or herbicide drift

 

[chickenlittle]

I’d look for a borer hole on that branch and then prune it out. Those can introduce fungal infections that do more damage than the insect.

 

[Peeps]

I haven’t sprayed any herbicide this year so I know it’s not that. I haven’t been able to spray insecticide fungicide up there for a month do to circumstances beyond my control. I’ll be up this weekend and will take a closer look. I’ll take that main branch off then and give it a good dose of Imadan and Captan and look for borer holes. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[chummer]

Borers have decimated my trees. 80% of my trees have significant damage to death. Mine hit the bottom 12” of the tree and they eventually look like your tree. I have been battling them all year. They really suck because they do so much damage before you catch them.

 

[b116757]

The couple times I’ve had borer damage I never noticed it at all until the bark was falling off where they had been. No leaf damage to really speak of but I’ve been lucky in they haven’t totally ringed a limb or trunk.

 

[Peeps]

I returned today and checked for borer holes and did not find any. The entire tree is in rough shape the leaves are turning a lighter green and are shriveling up.

 

[homerj1]

Did you give the trunk a good yank to see if the roots are intact?

 

[Ruffdude]

Did you give the trunk a good yank to see if the roots are intact?

I wonder if a ground burrowing critter is eating the roots. Or ants? I seem to be battling ants this Summer.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Do you see any lesions cankers that are oozing an orangish / yellowish liquid goop?? If so, it's probably fire blight. Look at the ends of the brown, dead shoots. Are they showing the bent-over "shepherd's crook" ?? That's also evidence of fire blight - a common way to identify fire blight infection.

 

[TenPoint]

Here’s my violi’s from SLN. Also 2016. Haven’t had any apples yet but it looks healthy. I can’t remember what disease issues this is supposed to have or have not.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^^^^ Your Violi's crab looks much better than ours. Ours gets morning shade, so that may be slowing it. Yours looks great!!

 

[TenPoint]

^^^^^^^ Your Violi's crab looks much better than ours. Ours gets morning shade, so that may be slowing it. Yours looks great!!

These get pretty much full sun being on the north side of the field.