OMG!My poor apple tree!

[happyhippy]

Well I could sit down a have a good cry! We planted our first ever apple tree early last year.Did'nt obviously expect any fruit last year.I waited in anticipation this year,first watching the tree come back to life,new buds,then leaves.....then apples!Well as you're probably all aware it has been quite blustery of late so I did expect some fruit to fall.On closer inspection today,it looks like the tree has some kind of disease(or the apples???)Earlier in the week I had a peek and some of the fruit looked "bruised".Today?There is a brown "stain"on some of them,and.....holes in the others.None are salvageable!So much for picking my own fruit come autumn.So firstly what is the brown stain?Kind of looks raised if that makes sense?And the holes?Is there any way in the future I can prevent these two things happening?I am in two minds of removing the tree altogether because if this is an ongoing problem,whats the point in keeping it? Any advice much appreciated!Thankyou xx

[Millymollymandy]

The brown stain could be scab and the holes are probably insects. I have all this kind of stuff on some of my apples but as I have a mature orchard it doesn't really matter if some of the fruit is diseased or full of grubs!

Spraying several times a year with Bordeaux Mix can help against fungal disease such as scab, and insect damage, depending on the type, can be helped with pheromone traps - but as I've never used them I don't know much about that. It may be to prevent the moths which lay the caterpillars which eat the leaves rather than fruit boring insects - not sure about that but hopefully someone will come along to give you more advice.

Whatever you do, don't dig the tree up!

[sarahkeast]

Take off remaining fruit and let tree put it's energy into growing stronger. Mine went in last year and I viciously removed all fruit, trees look better this year and will bear small crops as left some fruit on. Hoping this will pay off in future. May help yours too if it can get stronger to ward off nasties.

[boboff]

Make sure the earth is clean for at least a meter around the tree, this does help the tree get established.

There is something about the rain splashing back up to the bud and causing problems, so if possible when you prune the tree keep the growth as high up as you can t prevent this.

As for expectations, then think 5 years before you can pick fruit, at least that way any you get sooner will be a bonus!

[locum76]

Agree with all that, plus you can eat apples with scab.

[happyhippy]

Thanks for the replies.Wow 5 years?????A few people have mentioned 2 but 5?lol Most of the fruit has actually now fallen off.I'm not too fussy when it comes to eating fruit(except when of course it might have some kind of grub inside it ugh!)Ah well atleast we still have strawbs,raspberries and redcurrants!