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Gardening in the UK

What's wrong with our apple tree?

9 years ago

Hi
We have a big old apple tree in our garden that has always been healthy and given us big cooking apples but it has what looks like a serious problem.
We noticed two years ago that some of the bark was coming away and underneath were tiny, rice-like grains (look like bugs of some sort). There are some wood-worm looking holes in some areas too.
Last year a few tiny apples grew and fell quickly.
This year the tree blossomed a bit but we have no apples and the few leaves that came out are shrivelling and turning yellow and brown.
The bark on the lower half has been a rusty colour for a while too, not sure if that's anything to do with it.
I have searched some apple tree problems but can't find anything that matches ours, hopefully someone will recognise it?

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I manage many apple trees well over a century old. If the tree suffered a sudden set back it is probably not related to senescence. Apple trees tend to die back gradually- at least here in the northeastern U.S. Your tree doesn't even look any where near that old to me- it has the bark of a tree under 50, but as I say, I may manage hundreds of old apple trees, but they are all in the northeast with completely different conditions. Haven't you had severe flooding fairly recently? Maybe the tree drowned during a long wet period. If you have heavy soil or any drainage issues this would be my first guess judging from the pictures. If this is the case, the tree may surprise you and recover if conditions have returned to normal.
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Japanese cherries have more of a tendency for the unfolding leaves to be absent or obscured at flowering time. In addition to the bark characteristics mentioned the leaves of specimen in question are definitely those of a Prunus and not those of a Malus.
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The yellow spots look like cedar apple rust to me. Best controlled by preventatively spraying any fungicide product containing myclobutanil as the active ingredient around May 10th-June 1st for your area. The easiest fungicide to get having this ingredient is Spectracide Immunox available at some Ace hardware stores or online. Nothing you can do now for the leaves already infected.
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I just don't ever experience hail damage so can neither confirm or deny......although it seems very strange to me that hail damage would appear along the trunk or the underside (or close to it) of any branches. IMO, it looks more like the beginning of apple anthracnose. But I'd suggest taking these photos and any samples you could manage to your county extension office for both an accurate ID as well as suitable treatment options.
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