canker

[dickandjill]

Hello
I am in the middle of planting a load of apple trees that we have been growing on for a year or so.Two of the trees have very bad canker.We think they may or maynot survive long term.( we cut out the canker when spotted)My question is how contagious ,if at all, is canker to our other healthy trees.Will it be ok to plant the two cankered trees out in the orchard with the rest or should they be kept apart?
Thanks

[Jenny Green]

My impression is that canker is just around in the atmosphere anyway and that trees get it through wounds, so I would plant them with the others. I had a cherry with canker and no other tree got it in four years (the cherry outgrew the canker too!!)

[sue-the-recycler]

I've sort of inherited a small orchard (part of a neighbours land)The apple trees were quite productive this year but they are old and most have a fairly large dose of canker. They havent been pruned for some years - probably not in the past 10 years - Is it worth giving them a good going over with the loppers? or better to just leave thm to die a slow and dignified death?

[pigletwillie]

Sue,

our friends farm orchard was the same and consists of about 20 old trees that had been neglected. We gave them a good trim and got them into good order, they fruited poorly the next year primarily because all of the fruiting spurs were cut back but the year after they had a new lease of life, much more prolific. I think that it would be worth it.

To ensure that your fruit supply doesnt dry up for a year, perhaps it would be prudent to tackle one half of the orchard this year and the other half next.

Piglet

[sue-the-recycler]

excellent idea - think I'll do just that pigletwillie. Half at a time seems like a good move.