Question
I live in Albany, New York.  In my yard is an established crab apple tree.  The age of the tree is 17+ years and up until last year, never had a problem with it.  Last year we had a very cool, damp spring.  In the latter part of July, my tree's leaves began turning yellow and dropping.  By the end of the summer, the tree had no leaves on it.  I contacted a local nursery, who said that established crab apple trees have a problem with damp and mold, but not to worry, next year the tree will blossom.  They were right, however, this spring is again cool, damp and I noticed that the interior of the tree's (shaded)limbs and trunk are very damp and starting to grow green fuzzy mold again.  I am afraid that the tree will again start to defoliate and end up bare, or worse, dead.  Is there anything I can do:  spray, cultivate, etc. that will help the tree or reverse the mold and prevent it from loosing all its leaves?  Last year I had landscaped the base of the tree with roofing stones (multi-colore).  This year I replaced them with red cedar mulch.  

Answer
did your local nursery say what you could do to prevent this? I would try a fungicide, that usually takes care of this all to comman problem, the nursery was right, it wont hurt the tree, unless it happens to many years in a row, which usually isnt the case, this is natural, mother nature will run her course. good luck, and look for a fungicide, and follow directions on the package for it.

Mark