Apple Tree: RIP

[Mike Vogel]

I have grown 2 espalier apple trees in my small back garden for the past 20 years. They are Laxton Epicure and Laxton Supreme. The epicure gets the benefit of the sun earlier than the supreme. The trunks of both are about 6 inches in diameter, perhaps a bit less.

Last year there was little growth on the supreme and this year there has been none. I have noticed that the bark on the trunk and some of the branches has split and these splits look like open scars. Clearly the tree is dead.

So I chopped off the branches and took a tentative heave at the trunk. With very little force applied, I simply pulled it towards me and the trunk just came away from the roots; there were none attached to it.

Can anyone suggest what has happened to this tree? I want to put another in more or less the same place and it would be useful to know whether a particular disease resistant variety needs to be bought and which disease it should be resistant to..

Thanks folks

mike

[Johnboy]

Hi Mike,
Sounds like Fire Blight to me. Fire Blight used to be a notifiable disease.
I had a wonderful John Downie crab apple for pollination purposes which came into full flower then died still with the blossoms on it. That was put down to Fire Blight by one of Bulmers apple experts. This was cut down and burnt immediately and thankfully no other trees suffered the same fate.
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Mike, i'm not so sure it is Fireblight.
Did any of the leaves last year, wither become brown, but did not fall from the tree, this is one sign. If you have not got rid of the tree itself, you can also peel some bark off and you will see a red-brown staining of the inner tissue, if it is Fireblight.

The splitting of the bark is normally caused by irregular growth.
So i think the total root failure has caused the splitting.

But to what has caused the root failure is another Question all together.
Hopefully it could be down to somethig like waterlogging after last years very wet season.

But it could be Honey Fungus, this will show similar symptoms to the Fireblight, regarding the dying of the leaves, but these will eventually drop off intead of remaining on the tree.
Also you will find white fan shaped fungus growing under the bark of the roots and trunk at or just below ground level, and also black root like threads growing around the diseased roots.
Hopefully you have found none of these.

I would give one of the fruit specialist a ring with the symptoms, just to see what they think.

[Mike Vogel]

Thanks a lot JB and OH. The voice of experience and knowledge. I didn't detect any white fungus anywhere and if I remember rightly the tree formed leaves but no blossom last year and the leaves dropped off early. If that's what happens with fireblight, and if fireblight can affect one tree but not its neighbours, then that may be the explanation. I'll examing the trunk tomorrow for the telltale reddish=brown marks.
mike

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Mike, with Fireblight the dead leaves remain on the tree after turning brown.

The root failure can be down to other things apart from Honey fungus.
Something as simple as waterlogging in a couple of wet seasons will also cause it.

[Mike Vogel]

Well, not fireblight then. I can't peel the bark at all easily and I suspect it's down to the tree being in a cold spot. It never has done as well as the one next to it.
m