apple tree in distress

[jgage]

suddenly about half all leaves are brown, look scorched. have been digging around base of tree to expose flare, (does not seem to have the defined flares, only found one). applied a bagged sick tree amendment to soil. can this five year old be saved? have old honey. can i sue this in place of dry molasses and how much around this tree?

[sandih]

Was this tree recently planted? If not, has it always been healthy until recently?

[jgage]

this apple tree is probably at least five years old, has always appeared healthy and has bloomed but never had any apples until this year when it had five or so little apples (granny smith, i think). i had a pear tree that did the same thing when it just started to produce and died, maybe fire blight. are those little spider like roots the ones we need to be so careful with when we look for the flare? i would like to punch holes all around from the dripline about 6 inches from the trunk and put about a gallon of old honey in adddition to cottonseed bur or something and some cornmeal in to fertilize it. would this work?

[The Ent]

I'd imagine honey would have a similar mix ration as molases, as far as the sugar content, but might be someone problematic in the mixing process, being thicker.

Don't forget that those bagged products are only part of the sick tree treatment. You're on the right track wanting to aerate the soil around it. Foliar feeding, is a must, and on furit trees garlic/pepper tea is a must too to keep 'ick' away form them.

Don't prune anything until fall cool sets in, unless it's an obviously diseased limb. Even then I tend to do most of my appletree pruning in late winter.

[jgage]

thanks. i thought the bagged product was all of the treatment. will procede with the sick treatment then. how about the spider-like roots i encountered while digging for the flare? is this what we are not supposed to damage???

[The Ent]

I'd leave them alone, unless they're coming out of the trunk part that was buried, and are above he flare.

[jgage]

still do not understand how suddenly the leaves scorched. have peach trees and none of them have scorched. does an apple tree require more water than peach trees? could this have been caused from lack of water? all the leaves are now scorched and dried out. let the hose run all day on it today. someone told me ants will kill a tree, but i have never had it happen before.