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nafex - Re: [nafex] drought-stricken apple tree

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  • From: Thomas Olenio <tolenio@sentex.net>
  • To: Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] drought-stricken apple tree
  • Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 07:49:20 -0400 (EDT)

Hi,

What do the leaf buds look like? Dry or moist?

I use to live in Methuen (near Lawrence, MA).

It is still very early in the season. Some trees have leafed out and
others are dormant. A tree weakened by drought may be a slow starter.

I would start by giving it 30 gallons of water a week, mulch it well, and
spray it with antidesicant spray. Give it plenty of water, and tools to
retain it. The weather has been odd, and it may need some TLC.

You may want to top dress 1" with manure too.

Tom
--
Southwest Ontario
Canada Hardiness Zone 6a
(similar to US zone 5)

On Thu, 25 Apr 2002, Ginda Fisher wrote:

> I have three apple trees (two crabs and a jonathan) and last summer's
> drought was hard on them. It didn't occur to me that a mature crab
> apple needed supplemental water, and the one that didn't get any runoff
> from the garden lost all its leaves early, and the apples withered on
> the limbs.
>
> This spring, only a few of the branches have leafed out. (It's a clump
> of many branches coming from a cluster in the ground, not a single-trunk
> affair.) The healthy crabs in the neighborhood are just past full
> bloom. I have tried cutting open the bark of two of the apparently
> lifeless branches, and both showed green, although neither was full of
> sap.
>
> It's possible that my earlier grafting experiments hurt the tree. Every
> grafted branch is leafless (so are most of the others) so either
> mechanical damage or some virus is a possibility. The other crabapple
> is doing fine. It also bears several grafts, but I was careful to use
> different scions on the two trees, and avoid any cross-contamination, so
> if I had one or two sick scions, they could easily have infected only
> one tree.
>
> Any advice? Should I cut off the leafless branches? Wait a year and
> see what happens?
>
> Thanks,
> Ginda Fisher
> eastern Mass., zone 6
>
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