What to do if the leaves dry on an apple tree?

An apple tree is a frequenter of almost every summer cottage. It is difficult to imagine a person who would be indifferent to apples.From the beginning of the season, gardeners are looking forward to having their apples ripen, and you can taste their juicy flesh, prepare compotes, and make jam and jam for the winter. However, gardeners often face the problem of drying leaves on a tree, which can lead to a significant reduction in yield. Learn about the methods of dealing with this condition below.

Before you begin to remedy the situation, you need to find out what is connected with this state of the apple tree. There may be several reasons.

Among the most common diseases are the following diseases of the apple tree.

• Rust. The disease infects the leaves, forming orange or red spots with black specks on them. The spores of the pathogen infect the leaves in spring, the leaf plate turns yellow early, fades, and then dries.
• Brown spotting. In this disease, the leaves are covered with dark yellow spots, brown at the edges, eventually dry and fall. At the same time the infection remains in the fallen foliage.
• Chlorosis. In this case, the leaves turn yellow evenly, which is a consequence of a lack of nutrients. During the course of the disease, the sheets dry, the branches and the trunk die off.
• Scab. If a tree is struck by a scab, then brown bloom forms on the leaves, and they fall off. Fruits form cracks and dark spots.
• Mealy dew. A sign of this disease is a gray or white bloom on the leaves and flowers, which eventually turns brown. Leaves affected by the disease twist and dry, the buds do not give fruit.

The most famous pests that cause dry leaves are the following insects.

• Aphid. The favorite habitat of this individual is the underside of the young leaf. The plate damaged by insects twists and dries, after which the pest moves to the following specimens.
• Woody bug. The main food of this pest is sap from ovaries, buds, young leaves. The activity of bugs provokes deformation of the leaves and their drying.
• Apple fly. The larvae of this insect gnaw through the leaf tissue, and do not touch the upper layer. Under the influence of the “work” of future flies, yellow-green mines are formed on the plates, which eventually darken and dry up. Most often the pest infects the leaves in the shaded part of the crown.
• Spider mite This insect sucks nutritious juice from the leaves. You can learn about the appearance of the tick by the cobweb woven by it on the petiole.

If the tree lacks moisture, then the massive drying of the leaves begins, the tips of the young shoots first dry out. Only at the expense of the liquid the plant can provide itself with nutrients from the soil, so it suffers without moisture and from a deficiency of beneficial substances - zinc, potassium, magnesium, manganese. This is the most common cause of foliage drying.

There are a few more reasons that can trigger this condition.

• Draining of the root system. Usually this is due to the close occurrence of groundwater. The roots of this culture have an extensive system, extending a long distance into the depth, sometimes reaching several meters. There may be no nutrients here, the roots experience an excess of moisture, and the leaves begin to dry. Fruit trees become especially sensitive to soil overmoistening in June-July, therefore during this period the cause of dry leaves can be the cause of dry leaves.
• The freezing of the apple tree. This is usually a secondary cause of leaves drying. More often, trees freeze out due to illness, attacks of pests, and lack of moisture. Also, this condition is characteristic of young plants.

Damaged apple trees are poorly prepared for the winter cold, which becomes in the future the cause of dried foliage. Also, a tree can freeze out if it had to endure a snowless winter.

• Burn chemicals. It may occur if the gardener is overdone with treating the tree from insects and diseases. This also results in the action of solutions of iron and copper sulphate, if the treatment with these means was carried out with young leaves on the tree.
• Rodents Mice, rats and moles love to feast on the bark of young trees. Traces of their stay can be seen on the border between the trunk and the root system.

If the summer resident in due time paid attention to the drying of the leaves of the apple tree, then the harvest can still be saved. Consider the basic methods of treatment of damaged wood.

• If dried leaves are seen on a seedling, then it should be transplanted to another site. Apparently, this place did not suit the young escape. If a stratification is found at the site of the vaccination, then, alas, the tree will not help.
• If frostbite or sunburn caused the early dried leaves, it is recommended to whiten the branches and trunk with special paint in early spring, which is offered in any specialty store.
• If the reason is a shortage of nutrients, you should feed them an apple tree. This should be done during irrigation and make feeding with water. You can also spray the missing tree and leaves. If there is not enough nitrogen, then manure, compost, blocks after growing mushrooms will become good fertilizers. In the case of potassium deficiency, you can use ash, ash, lowland peat.
• If the leaves on the tree dry from excess power, then it can save him abundant watering at the root.
• Sometimes the cause is hard to spot. If this old tree and all its growing conditions are met, then the factor that provokes the early drying out of the foliage may be the lack of anti-aging pruning. In this case, this flaw needs to be corrected.

A separate item should highlight the methods of combating insects and diseases. For each case, gardeners have developed the most effective ways to solve the problem.

• Rust: all damaged leaves are eliminated, the affected branches are cut off, the bush is sprayed with Zineba solution of 0.4% or with Topaz and Vectra preparations.
• Brown Spot: in the spring before flowering and after this period, the bushes should be treated with 1% Bordeaux mixture or its substitutes (“HOM”, “Abiga-Peak”), all damaged leaves are collected and destroyed.
• Scab: 3-4 times per season you need to spray the affected instance with “Skor” or “Fitosporin” means. After processing, wood is watered with 30 l of water and a nitroammophore (2-3 l) diluted in water is added.
• Mealy dew: It is possible to fight the disease through a one-percent solution of colloidal sulfur.
• Aphid: in the fight against this pest help drugs "Confidor" and "Iskra". Among the popular methods are widespread decoctions of wormwood and garlic.
• Spider Tick: Insecticides Fufanon, Bi-58 Novy, Karate-Zeon have proven themselves well. A popular solution of sulfur tar soap and onion infusion.
• Apple fly: it is necessary to destroy all the leaves on which the larvae had time to leave the mines, and to process the tree with the preparations “Kemifos”, “Aktellik” or “Inta-Vir”.

To avoid drying out of the leaves of the apple tree, you should warn in advance all the causes that may lead to this condition. Use the following prevention guidelines.

• As soon as a young sprout is planted on a plot, its development should be closely monitored.
• Before buying a seedling, make sure that the tree has an actively developing root system, there is no mold on the young roots, the trunk itself has a smooth structure. The vaccination site must be expressed. There should be no injuries on the bark, and the trunk can be considered healthy if it is evenly colored.
• In the autumn period, it is imperative to remove fallen leaves in order not to spread spores and various infections. It is advisable to destroy the collected leaves, the remaining ash from the burning is recommended to be used as a fertilizer.
• When pruning and crown formation is performed, a disinfected instrument must be used. Damage left by the instrument is recommended to be closed in order to prevent infection from entering.
• After feeding, the plant needs mulching. Mulch will allow the tree to survive the winter without freezing and retain moisture.

As a preventive measure, it is very important to feed a tree at least three times a season. To do this, use the following rules.

• In the spring It is better to use nitrogen fertilizers. Feeding method - root. Alternatively, you can feed the plant with humus (3-4 buckets) or urea (600 g). It is recommended that the tool be distributed around the perimeter of the crown at a distance of up to half a meter from the base.
• Summer The most preferred food options are phosphate-potassium fertilizers (100 g of superphosphate, 70 g of potassium sulfate, 10 liters of water), a solution of bird droppings or slurry, and urea (100 g per 10 liters of water). Liquid fertilizer is recommended to apply in drought, in the rainy period it is better to use dry fertilizers.
• In the autumn It is desirable to choose potassium superphosphates and potassium sulphates for the nutrition of the culture. It is necessary to refuse the nitrogen-containing means reducing frost resistance.

Experienced agronomists offer novice gardeners to use the following guidelines for growing apple trees, to prevent earlier drying of the leaves.

• In order not to face such an illness as scab, you can purchase a variety that is resistant to this disease, for example, Bogatyr, Sinap, Tikhomirov’s Memory The most vulnerable to this disease varieties - "White filling", "Zhigulevskoe."
• To make nutrients easier to deliver to the tree, you can resort to using sideratov, that is, fertilizers that are embedded in the soil when digging. This is usually done in spring or summer. Beans, peas, buckwheat, alfalfa are considered the most preferred siderats for apple trees.
• Choosing a plot for the culture, pay attention to the loose loam. Wet places and areas with close groundwater storage should be avoided.
• If ash is chosen as a top dressing, then it is necessary to deposit it very carefully. The alkaline environment is dangerous for beneficial microorganisms in the soil, so an excess of ash is worse than its deficiency.
• When using superphosphates, it is recommended to dissolve them in boiling water, as they are poorly diluted in ordinary water. In the case of foliar feeding, the composition is prepared to a concentration of 3%.
• To buy poisons and antifungal medicines is necessary in special nurseries and trusted stores.

How to determine that the apple is not enough potassium? The answer to this question awaits you in the next video.