Powdery mildew on apple trees

Hi everyone.

Last Spring, we bought a pair of apple trees from a local, generally well-respected garden centre. They were a Braeburn and a James Grieve, and were to take pride of place in the garden of our first home.

Not long after we bought them, we noticed that one of the trees (the JG) had some leaves which were silvery, browning at the ends and curling up. We took some photos and headed back to the garden centre, where a member of staff identified it as powdery mildew and sold us some Bayer Susthane Fungus Fighter (300ml concentrate). At the time, we noticed that some of the apple trees they had in stock also had powdery mildew. We mentioned this, and the chap just mumbled something about having had a wet winter and that it was just "one of those things".

Eventually, we realised that both trees had powdery mildew. The JG moreso than the Braeburn. The latter gave quite a crop and grew well through the season, but the James Grieve only bore three apples and didn't really increase in height very much. We applied the fungus fighter throughout the season, and I'm fairly sure the mildew subsided a little.

The trees are now beginning to sprout leaves. The braeburn is a bit further along, but I've noticed that a lot of the leaves have silvery fur on them. I can't tell if this is to be expected in terms of new leaves, or whether this is early evidence that we'll have serious mildew on our hands again.

I've tried to buy some fungus fighter, but have read that it has been withdrawn from sale (with all stocks having to be sold by Nov 15 and used by Nov 16). I've also read that powdery mildew is less "curable" than I was probably led to believe. I'm a little bit narked that the garden centre sold us what were probably infected trees, and feel like we were fobbed-off when we went in to talk to them about it. Admittedly, we didn't do much to prune the trees over the winter - is it too late to do so now? Does anybody have any other advice? I've heard recommendations of milky water... has anyone had any success with that?

Thanks,
Lawrence

 

Difficult to say, I dont really think you were sold infected trees, mildew is in the air all the time, its only when conditions are right, it gets going.
As with quite a lot of plant diseases.

Being newly planted were they well watered?, often dry at the roots can make mildew more likely.

They, the Brussels bureaucrats, are withdrawing chemicals all the time, but I would think there is still one available for mildew, although I would doubt that the white on the new leaves at the moment is mildew.

 

I agree with Pete. Unlikely at this stage to be mildew. Emerging leaves do tend to have a somewhat silver/velvety appearance, if I remember correctly.

 

Thanks for the responses. We did water the plants in exceptionally well last year - at least daily, if not twice-daily, with plenty of water both around the base and directly to the roots via a tube. We've not kept this up over the winter, though. I'll get back to doing it again soon, as it has been reasonably dry of late.

My concern was that I have read some websites which pretty much say that the best news about powdery mildew is that it might not affect your whole orchard - resigning to failure when it comes to actually treating it. Perhaps the situation isn't quite this dire.

I'll keep an eye out in small garden centres for the Bayer susthane concentrate and pick up a couple of bottles. I've noticed that the big chains have already de-listed it. It's the treatment currently recommended by the RHS... some places still have the Bayer ready-mixed spray available, but it says it's only for ornamentals and not for use on edibles. This has pretty much been the case with all of the other treatments I've found. If anyone does know of any other mildew treatments suitable for apple trees, do let me know! :-)

 

You can still get Fungus Fighter on Amazon, although not sure it's the same product as previous

I'd say prevention is better than cure, so spray now and then keep spraying once a month throughout the season. I've got cherry trees with a similar problem.

 

There shouldn't be any need to water now as it should be established, imo.