What could cause a whole hill of red apple to die? It's been healthy for 15 years with very little care, now within a couple of months the whole hill is brown. Looking up close, the roots and stalks that are still green look fine.

I'll take some to the nursery this weekend and ask. My guess would be some kind of disease, something filtering thru the soil from uphill neighbor, or rats or squirrels eating it.

Any guesses?

What could cause a whole hill of red apple to die? It's been healthy for 15 years with very little care, now within a couple of months the whole hill is brown. Looking up close, the roots and stalks that are still green look fine.

I'll take some to the nursery this weekend and ask. My guess would be some kind of disease, something filtering thru the soil from uphill neighbor, or rats or squirrels eating it.

Any guesses?

I should mention that searching online, all I could find was possible disease/fungus related to being exposed to heavy rain, irrigation or poor drainage. None of these could be the cause here. Very dry - drought conditions still here. Latest rain was 1/2-inch & very good drainage. Prior to the drought, we have had period of heavy rain for a week or more and no problem like this.

On 3/19/2016 10:05 AM, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
What could cause a whole hill of red apple to die? It's been healthy for 15 years with very little care, now within a couple of months the whole hill is brown. Looking up close, the roots and stalks that are still green look fine.

I'll take some to the nursery this weekend and ask. My guess would be some kind of disease, something filtering thru the soil from uphill neighbor, or rats or squirrels eating it.

Any guesses?

I should mention that searching online, all I could find was possible disease/fungus related to being exposed to heavy rain, irrigation or poor drainage. None of these could be the cause here. Very dry - drought conditions still here. Latest rain was 1/2-inch & very good drainage. Prior to the drought, we have had period of heavy rain for a week or more and no problem like this.


Just admit that you are a total failure--both as a gardener and as a man.
LOL

On Saturday, March 19, 2016 at 12:55:55 PM UTC-4, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney wrote:
What could cause a whole hill of red apple to die? It's been healthy for 15 years with very little care, now within a couple of months the whole hill is brown. Looking up close, the roots and stalks that are still green look fine.

I'll take some to the nursery this weekend and ask. My guess would be some kind of disease, something filtering thru the soil from uphill neighbor, or rats or squirrels eating it.

Any guesses?

Do you have a cooperative extension nearby? They *might* have more expertise
than a nursery or maybe just be another source of information. Can't hurt.

On Sat, 19 Mar 2016 11:57:01 -0500, Snuffy "Hub Cap" McKinney
wrote:

What could cause a whole hill of red apple to die? It's been healthy
for 15 years with very little care, now within a couple of months the
whole hill is brown. Looking up close, the roots and stalks that are
still green look fine.

I'll take some to the nursery this weekend and ask. My guess would be
some kind of disease, something filtering thru the soil from uphill
neighbor, or rats or squirrels eating it.

Any guesses?

I can't answer your question but here is a list of land grant
universities in the U.S.

http://www.tiac.net/~mabaker/land-grant.html

One of the things a land grant university does is conduct
agricultural research. The University of Nebraska in Lincoln
publishes something called NebGuides. This
http://extensionpubs.unl.edu/# is the website. YOu might
find something there.



--
Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

On Sat, 19 Mar 2016 17:11:58 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

Do you have a cooperative extension nearby? They *might* have more expertise
than a nursery or maybe just be another source of information. Can't hurt.

Each state has one online, I believe, unless it doesn't.