General Apple Tree Problems.

There are many small problems with apple trees that can easily be dealt with or even ignored!

Below, we list the problems that are normally associated with apple trees. You will be very unfortunate if you get too many of these, for growing apple trees is relatively easy and trouble free. Apple trees often get overlooked until near to harvest time. To keep your trees free of problems, a routing thorough weekly inspection should be carried out.

If you have a few spots on a few - or even all - leaves, then don't panic. You may never get to the bottom of it - but the tree will normally live on!

If you have a problem that is not dealt with in these pages, then yes! We would like to hear from you.

Common Problems with Apple Trees.

• Common problems with Brown Leaves and Spots on Apple Trees
• Apples Turning Brown on Tree before ripening - Normally in Late Summer as fruit starts to ripen.
• Apple Scab Disease - Brown scabs and cracks on Apples
• Winter Wash for Fruit Trees as a control of many insect pests of apple trees
• Lichen on Apple Tree Bark
• Leaf dies back and withers/wilts, but stays on the tree. - Fire Blight
• White woolly material on branches, trunk: Woolly apple aphid
• Decline in the general vigour of the tree, with decay in the root areas. Phytophthora Fungus.
• White speckling on Apple Tree leaves, showing up as small dots or larger, where the upper skin of the leaf has been ruptured. Apple leafhopper
• White powdery deposit on leaves: Powdery mildew
• Leaves on the tree rolled up or curled. Apple aphid, leafrollers
• Maggot inside tunnelled fruits.: Codling moth maggot, apple maggot
• Light spotting of fruit: Flower Thrips damage
• Brown spots develop on the skin and also into the flesh - during storage. - Bitter Pit is probably the problem.
• Dry Brown patches on Fruit - Russeting. Powdery mildew
• Apples Getting Smaller - Many Apples -but small! Fruit should be thinned out early in the season to allow the best in every truss a better chance to grow into prize apples.
• Plenty of Flowers, but no fruit! Either bad pollination (unlikely) or late frost spoiling the flowers and preventing insects from pollinating.
• Fruit Dropping off tree in early summer. Too many fruits for the tree to support, so it sheds a few!

Can we answer your question here?? Email us and see.

Hopefully this list will point you in the right direction to identify your problem. Bear in mind that apple trees are BIG plants, so feeds and spray or whatever else required are a little more difficult in application, or slower acting than they would be with a  smaller plant such as a perennial in the border.

Many of the problems mentioned are inconvenient rather than life-threatening - unless you allow them to get out of hand. Then they become big problems!