North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Jim, I'm wondering if what you describe isn't just weather related cambium kill.  My insights on this issue are anecdotal only, but I do know that it's pretty hard to keep track of conditions that may lethally freeze the cambium due to all the variables, including the level of dormancy, length of exposure, wind conditions and so forth. 

 

I've mentioned on this site that last year I lost 3 apricots after a relatively mild winter at 2 of the most favorable sites I manage them, being right next to the Hudson River not more than 40 miles north of NY City.  My hunch is just that they were further out of dormancy than apricot trees at other sites when a hard spring frost hit all areas where I grow them.  I've come to the conclusion that here most of my weather related cambium kill must occur in the early spring because there is no correlation between these incidents and extreme winter weather.  In zone 3 there would probably be a completely different dynamic, but I thought this might be helpful.

 

  Jim Fruth wrote  "What can you tell me about bark disease?  The bark looks normal until
the day I notice that it has sunk inward.  When I pull away the outer bark,
the inner bark seems absent (or shriveled?)  It doesn't girdle the tree but
so little live bark is left that the live bark can no longer sustain the
tree and the tree dies the following year.  It isn't sun-scald as the
problem occurs on the north side too.  No (obvious) evidence of insects.  My
zone 3 peach died this way and now my McIntosh Apple has it."