My Apple is Weeping!

Q. I noticed my Anna apple tree is seeping fluid and a white patsy substance from a previous cut done last year. What shall I do to help it?

A. Smell the fluid. Take your finger and wipe it against this wetness and judge your nose whether the smell is “yeasty” or not. If there is a strong yeasty smell, there might be a bacterial infection going on. If it does not smell “yeasty”, then there is probably no infection.

Slime flux or more commonly called wetwood is a bacterial disease that invades the wood of trees and lingers. It is not life threatening for the tree but it is an eyesore.

            I would not do anything to the tree regardless. The yeasty smell is caused by a non-lethal infection.

            The inside of a tree has a central core of dead wood. The living part of the tree is an outer cylinder of living wood that enlarges year-to-year. The inside of the living cylinder increases the diameter of this dead, central core each year.

            Growth in the length of branches is called primary growth. Growth in width or diameter is called secondary growth.

            Secondary growth is responsible for “rolling over” pruning cuts and they can no longer be seen. When this secondary growth rolls over a wound, it surrounds or engulfs the wound, covering it, but the wound doesn’t “heal” like it does in animals.

Anna apple is a good early apple for the desert but I still like Dorsett Golden a little better. Get them on M111 rootstock for the desert.

            The central core of the tree is dead. This dead wood can “rot” due to different microorganisms. This rotting caused by microorganisms can cause the “seeping fluid” you are seeing.

            I would do nothing to the tree at this time unless you see other problems developing in its overall health. Judging from the picture you sent, the old wound seems to be healing and rolling over the pruned cut very nicely.

            I would not disturb it in any way but let the tree heal on its own. It should stop weeping when tree growth begins in earnest in the next few weeks.