Apple trees are beautiful additions to any landscape. Besides providing fruit, apples make magnificent blooms, and more prominent selections make excellent shade trees if they reach their full height. Sadly, apple scab fungus is a commonplace and deadly problem. Apple tree owners must learn about treating apple scab fungus.
What Does Apple Scab Look Like?
Apple Scab Fungus
Apple scab fungus affects developing apples early in the season. However, it might not become noticeable on fruits until they’ve started to expand. Instead, scabs on apples first appear on the undersides of the leaves of the blossom clusters. These fuzzy, circle-shaped, dark olive green or brown lesions might cause leaves to crinkle or distort.
Scabs can be sparse, small, or abundant with leaf tissues that are covered in a velvety mat. Fruits might be infected at any point from planting to harvest. At first, lesions look like those on leaves. However, soon, the lesions change from dark brown to black before killing surface tissues, creating a scabby or corky texture. Scabs on infected apples keep on developing even in storage.
Apple Scab Treatment
Apple scab is hard to control if your tree is already infested. Though, you can safeguard future harvests equipped with some apple scab treatment advice. Apple scab stays dormant on fruit and in fallen leaves lying ground. Sanitation is enough to control a mild infection. You have to be sure to double bag or burn all the material to stop the infection from spreading.
When sprays are necessary, they must be applied between bud break and 60 days after petal fall. In rainy weather, utilizing every two weeks might be essential to stop apple scab from taking hold. Use neem oil or copper soaps when apple scab is a hazard. Also, you must keep fallen debris tided up at all times. If you can stop apple scab early in the year, it’s doubtful you’ll have issues as fruits grow, so treating apple scab fungus is important.
Scab Resistance Apple Trees
In places where apple scab is a perennial issue, you might want to think about replacing your tree with a scab-resistant type. Apples with excellent scab resistance include:
- Easy-Gro
- Enterprise
- Florina
- Freedom
- Goldrush
- Jon Grimes
- Jonafree
- Liberty
Contact an experienced tree specialist for more information or to help treat your tree if it’s infected.
