Disease on apple tree

I have a two year old apple tree and it has lots of black marks on the leaves and not sure what it was.If I posted a picture of it on here perhaps someone might be able to say what the problem is and and how to cure it.

 

Go on then..be a devil

 

Paul you need to post a picture , I am sure the tree gurus on here will advise then. It's probably blight , very common in apple trees.

 

Three pictures enclosed hope they help

 

Looks like Scab (Black spot). Since there are now virtually no fungicides available to the amateur it is not easy to deal with. If you can get hold of Copper Sulphate, then spray with that (reasonably organic). Otherwise collect up the fallen leaves and dispose, but not on the compost heap.
Actually does not kill the tree, but the fruit which is affected will not store and needs peeling before consumption.

 

I looked on Google and one of the things to try was Rose Clear and I do have some of that so have sprayed the tree.One other option would be to remove any leaves from the tree as it is still quite small being only about 18 months old so not many leaves on it and I could gather them all up and burn them.Would that help

 

i would hesitate to defoliate a young tree to be honest. Wait until autumn and then burn the fallen leaves. Rose Clear is only good for when there is no fruit on the tree.

 

Scab can eventually kill a tree. It continues to debilitate it if a yearly event .
It is a difficult one, removing foliage. I would and do it now. Those leaves wont be doing much good as they are. I would also spray with a fungicide after removing any diseased wood and fallen leaves. I would mulch thickly and feed.
In my experience, the only practical solution is to buy scab resistant trees Paul.

 

There is no fruit on the tree

 

I did not buy the tree it was given to me as a birthday present by my daughter what would the best fungicide to use.

 

Systhane is recommended Paul. As with most chemicals it is sensible to alternate with a different one
By the way, where did your daughter buy the tree? Some garden centres will offer a good growth guarantee so maybe you could return it for a different variety.
I would aim for the best circulation possible so keeping tree open is helpful

 

Systhane has been withdrawn so you may not be able to buy it. Nasty stuff in any case. I would not want to eat any apples taken from a tree treated with a systemic fungicide like this myself.

 

I used Dithane on my ornamental apple tree , when it had blight . I sprayed it twice a year . Also collected all the leaves that fell in autumn- it was a small tree luckily. Cleaned a mulched the area it was planted in . It took about 4 years of this treatment , and the tree is quite healthy now
Not sure how available Dithane is now , I used the stuff made by Bayer.

Dithane 945 Fungicide - Fruit Vegetable Disease Control - Blight Scab Black Spot | eBay

 

if it's of any help I have an ancient Apple tree which grows quite close to an enormous Lime tree. The Apple gets scab every now and then. I spoke about it to to a professional gardener who (before he retired was the head gardener at a stately home so should know his stuff) has been a fund of useful information to me. He said that if your Apple/Pear trees have scab it's often made much worse through shortage of water. Where mine is, the Lime takes just about every drop of moisture going. The Apple is about 100 years old so doubt I'd have much success moving it to a better spot!
As your tree is very young it won't have a huge root system yet so maybe give it extra water if you are experiencing dry periods. I watered my Apple tree when it was very dry here and while it still gets a bit of scab it's not nearly so severe.

 

To a large extent it is down to the health of the tree. The fitter the tree is because of the right amount of food, water, shape (air movement) then the more likely it is to escape Scab or not be affected by it if it does get it. All ours get it to a greater or smaller degree, most of the time I ignore it. I prefer to eat my fruit uncontaminated by chemicals. On Greensleeves which is very prone to it, I do spray with Copper sulphate, but only as a last resort.