black on tips of my fruit trees

[astraman1]

these are my fruit trees which i bought and put in last October got them from asda £5 a tree now i have 2 pear trees and 3 apple trees.

1 apple and 1 pear aren't doing anything yet the others are getting leaves and one had some flowers on which i have since pulled off to develop root and growth.

the stakes i've put in are 2"x2" to show the size of the trees but they have started getting black from the tops going down

what is this ? i am guessing they got burnt from the cold maybe and what can i do

should i be chopping that bit off any help would be great not to sure on fruit trees i can get variety names if it helps attached should be pics to show what i mean

[FB.]

Need some closer-up pictures of the point where the dark colouration starts on the stems, and close-ups of the tips of the dark-coloured stems.
I suggest you hurry because it looks as if the trees lives are in immediate danger.

Were the trees like that when you bought them?
Have you pruned them and the wounds become infected?
Have you done anything unusual with them, such as leaving them stored somewhere for too long before planting?
What's your location?

Best guesses, without more detailed pictures, are, in no particular order:
1. Canker
2. Fireblight
3. Phytophthora
4. Freeze damage
5. Trees were lifted far too early (normally bare-root season doesn't start until about December)
6. Trees had been kept in ASDA cold storage for several months (should have been sold in April 2014 but were forgotten until October 2014)

In any case, I think you're going to have to prune out the dead-looking bits, but how far back into good wood you'll need to prune will depend on the diagnosis from closer-up pictures.

[astraman1]

they were not like this when i got them

havent pruned them just put them straight in the ground

im derbyshire

got my allotment as a field so i just planted them in and left them they were bare root when i got them noticed it the other day when i was checking my plot cant get any pics today i will get up there tomorrow and prune them back to healthy wood

[FB.]

Take some more pictures because it is always useful to know what is causing the problem, especially if it comes back because spores have contaminated the nearby area or have landed on other parts of the tree and are waiting their chance to germinate (or get inoculated into wounds when you prune it).

[astraman1]

ok will take some pics before i touch it

when i do prune it should i put anything over the cuts or just leave it

[FB.]

ok will take some pics before i touch it

when i do prune it should i put anything over the cuts or just leave it

Some people do, some don't. If you use it you'll feel like you've 'done something' but most of the time it doesn't make much difference, except on varieties that are prone to disease (especially plums which get canker easily).
I have some 'Arbrex Heal and Seal' but I only use it for special situations - the bottle is several years old and hasn't been used for two or three years. By the time you're done buying chemicals/wound sealants trying to fight possible diseases you might have run up enough £££ that would have been better spent on buying a more resistant variety.

Which varieties and rootstocks are they? By knowing what the problem is (pictures tomorrow) and which varieties you have, you'll have more chance of dealing with it. As you're in Derbyshire I think fireblight is very unlikely.

[FB.]

Oh - one more thing.....
If you're doing a batch of pictures, to save you having to go back and do a third batch, take a picture of each tree from two or three different directions, showing the graft and the lower trunk down to the ground.

[astraman1]

pears are (doyenne du comice) this is budded onto quince A rootstock says which is virus free

apples are (discovery)on m26 root stock
(braeburn) on m26 root stock
(james grieve) on m26 root stock

will try and get pics tonight if its light enough when i finish work

thanks for the help so far

[FB.]

pears are (doyenne du comice) this is budded onto quince A rootstock says which is virus free

The rootstock was probably virus-free until the old variety was grafted onto it.
Old varieties tend to be riddled with viruses that they've picked up over the years.

apples are (discovery)on m26 root stock
(braeburn) on m26 root stock
(james grieve) on m26 root stock

Freeze damage seems unlikely, as Discovery and James Grieve are fairly hardy.

I'd narrow down the earlier shortlist to:
1. Canker
3. Phytophthora
5. Trees were lifted far too early (normally bare-root season doesn't start until about December)
6. Trees had been kept in ASDA cold storage for several months (should have been sold in April 2014 but were forgotten until October 2014)

[astraman1]

ok got some pics but rain came pouring down

these are 1 apple tree


heres another apple tree

[astraman1]

heres a pear

[astraman1]

heres the other pear tree


the other apple tree shows no sign of this damage but its not growing any leaves or doing anything

[FB.]

I think what's happened is that the trees were pruned and packed by the supplying nursery, then went off to the shops.
The trees sat in the shop (probably at the back of the cold-store) for far too long; they should have been sold in spring but didn't go on sale until autumn.
As a result of being stored far too long, the trees suffered dehydration, with the extremities dying-off which was not helped by moisture evaporation from the pruning cut made at the nursery.

The reason I think this is the first picture of the first of the two pears shows a very clear 'shrunken' dead bit sat on top of the live bit, and it even has a nice slope at the interface of living/dead wood which resembles the line that would be made by a pruning cut. The topmost buds look a bit weaker than the buds lower down, which seems to happen when a shoot suffers dehydration or frost damage.

If the trees were mine, I'd cut off the dead bits but not remove any live bits; I think they may well have walled-off the dead bits and begun to heal underneath (hence the sloped dead:live interface). Of course, you may feel the need to cut back into live wood if the buds you want to branch out are in the wrong place.

After removing just the dead bits, at least once per week for the next couple of months I would keep watch on the live bits nearest where you've pruned off the dead bits to see whether the dieback continues spreading down the stem (indicative of a disease such as canker or Phytopthora).
If it does continue moving down the stems I'd prune further back - at least a couple of inches of apparently good wood would need to be sacrificed because any infection might have grown into it but not yet killed it.

[astraman1]

ok thanks alot i will get on it today as they are such small trees i dont want to cut off to much so i will trim the dead off and monitor for now i need to look up about pruning fruit trees as i dont know much about them i just want them to stay small under 6ft

[astraman1]

chopped them all back to the next healthy bud so we will see what happens now thanks for all info