Fooey. I planted this tree back in the mid 90s. It has done very nicely until about 2 weeks ago. All of a sudden, it started turning yellow and brown. I took a pic of it this week, but now it is completely gone. Back in spring, it bloomed profusely and was so gorgeous! It is full of fruit, but they are now rotting on the tree. There are no bugs or blight of any kind that is visible. I have no idea why it might have keeled over dead. There are no black walnut trees anywhere near it. All of the other trees--oaks and a hickory and a mimosa and a few elms--nearby, all are much older than the crabapple tree--and at the moment they are just fine. This variety of crabapple gets fruits about the size of cherries. The only thing I can think of is that someone came in my yard and poisoned it. But they would have had to go to a lot of trouble to get at it, and why didnt it affect my other trees? It was not bothering anything or anyone. My yard is quite huge, and this is nowhere near any of my neighbors' properties. There used to be a huge old apple tree in this spot, and when it died, I planted the crabapple there as I could not get any apple trees at that time. dying crabapple tree ( photo / image / picture from AAnightowl's Garden ) about 48 hours ago, this tree looked like this. now it is all brown and shriveled up. :'(
Only a guess, sounds like a major root problem. If I see one of our local orchard people I will try and remember to ask. Jerry
Thanks. There are no bulging roots, and they were spread out when planted. There might be a cave under my hill... I know there is a sinkhole at the bottom of my hill. Could the roots be going down into thin air ? If so, why not the other trees ? Thanks for whatever you can find out.
Can you take a closer pic? Check out "Fire Blight". Its a bacterial problem that hits the tree when it is in bloom,,after that the leaves start to look like it was close to a fire. If it does not have an opening in the trunk where the blight can get in then it will usually not kill the tree. It will kill this years leaves and fruit. But it should recover and start to bear again next year. It hit my pear trees and all my apple trees last year. It does not bother other fruits. There is not much you can do about it but wait. Tree will look ugly for a while but should start to leaf out again in a couple of months. If I remember right the weather is the main cause of it. Cool wet weather at bloom time. It infects the blooms then spreads. I thought it killed my old pear tree but it is almost fully leafed out again and had a few pears this year,,next year will be better.
I will try for a closer pic. I did not notice any problems with it until about 2 weeks ago. It bloomed back in March or April, I forgot which. I will leave it be and see how it does until next spring. I might have a pic of it in bloom, I intended to get one.
If its fire blight,,the leaves will turn brown but they will stay on the tree Very few will drop. It can affect the whole tree or it can hit just a few limbs. Or even hit just one side. Its kind of weird.
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/tree-dise ... 8_27098450 I found this on our local news just now. Apparently it is fireblight. I hope it does not get my pear trees.
Hope not too but chances are it will. As long as it does not get in the trunk they will recover. Just takes a while.
