The Basics
Like any living creature, fruit trees can be plagued by a variety of ailments. Some of these are caused by pests or diseases, environmental stressors, and a lack of nutrients.
If some kind of pest or disease is afflicting your tree, the first step is to inspect! Get in there, observe, take pictures, look under leaves, check the trunk top to bottom, note any discoloration on leaves, webbing, rolling, etc. The more you observe, the easier it is to find out what is going on; we find the hardest things to diagnose are nutrient deficiencies, as they can vary within cultivars in a species, since soil and plants are so incredibly complex (eg. we find Yarlington Mill apple is especially sensitive to our soils slightly high pH)! But pest and disease pressures have tell-tale signs to identify them.
Next, check out our guide above to see common pests and diseases to identify the issue. Along with identification tips, we also include natural ways to deal with the problem.
Sometimes it's just something simple like common environmental factors such as too much sun and too much or too little water, which can have the following symptoms:
- Too much water: yellowing leaves, small leaves, root rot, poor quality fruit that ripens early
- Too little water: wilting and yellowing leaves, fruit ripens and/or drops early, in conjunction with high heat edges of leaves will turn brown or entire leaf may brown and drop off tree
- Sunscald: irregular reddish-brown sunken patches on fruit surface, can be alleviated with proper watering, nutrients, and adding shade cover