Hi, I have a Red Falstaff apple tree I planted last year, it produced two apples this year, a few weeks ago I noticed a soft patch in the truck about two foot from the ground, is this a disease and should I cut the trunk off below this.

It does look like a canker. You can in principle cut out the bad material, treat the cut surface with suitable chemicals, and then get regrowth around the wound. Web search will provide details.

But I had a young apple tree where the canker went around 90% of the trunk about 2 foot off the ground, and the restriction of supply of sap to the upper part of the tree was so severe that there was hardly any growth, even though the canker was not active any more. If the good flesh was going to regrow back around the wound, it was clearly going to take a very long time, and there were several more cankers formed on the trunk as well. I discussed cutting off the upper part of the tree to let it regrow below the canker with a leading nurseryman. He said it would work, but in general he wasn't very enthusiastic, mainly because he was concerned I would get a very odd shaped tree. But I did it anyway, and the tree is now growing strongly and giving me apples, and isn't such an odd shape apart from a slight wiggle in the trunk at the lopping site. Several buds formed, but once a clear strongest branch was established I cut the rest off to have a single-trunked tree. But I think I did had to wait about 3 years before it gave me anything after that lopping. Yours is so young that planting a new one might be quicker. In fact the nursery might give you a new one for getting such a bad canker so quickly, if you ask nicely - mine was 4 or 5 when I lopped it.

I planted a substitute tree in case it didn't work. So now I have an extra tree.

Make sure that if you do cut it off, that you cut it off well above the graft, otherwise you'll be growing rootstock, not Red Falstaff.

"Julian200" wrote ..


Hi, I have a fruiting cherry tree "stella" I planted a few years ago,
for the last year or so its had splits in the bark down the trunk, when
I squeeze edges of the split some orange coloured stuff comes out from
under the bark, is this a disease, can I do anything about it and could
it spread to other ornamental cherry trees I have in the garden? Thanks


Sounds like Bacterial Canker so yes it is a disease. If it totally rings the
stem it will kill off all the tree above it so can be fatal to the tree if
it happens low down near the ground. Normal suggestion it to remove the
infected areas and burn it but if it's on the trunk low down there is not
much you can do. There is another thread at the moment on this disease with
an apple tree.
Books suggest spraying with Bordeaux Mixture or copper oxychloride (if it's
available now) three times a year in late summer, early autumn and again in
mid autumn to avoid this problem, it won't cure a diseased tree
unfortunately, just prevent it happening.
There are some Cherry varieties that are resistant to it so if the tree dies
you might be able to replace it with one of those.

Having looked them up.... Merton Glory, Merton Premier, Merla, and Merpet

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Thanks for your reply, the canker is not very deep so I think I will clean it out, treat it and see how it goes, if it comes back I will cut the trunk!