Question

Baby tree that may be  
Dead or Alive?   QUESTION: Hi I am in New York, New York, and I wanted to try to grow an apple tree I was successful in growing the seed into a little plant, but now it seems like my little plant is getting sick.  I'm not sure if there is anything that I can do to help it?

Also if you refer to the second picture can you tell me if it is dead? or is it supposed to naturally dry up like that. Are the little saplings supposed to lose their leafs like grown trees?

Thank you for your help.

ANSWER: It looks like a disease called powdery mildew. A powdery, fluffy white to light gray-colored fungus growth on succulent stems, leaves, buds and flowers is the characteristic symptom of powdery mildew. Young plants and actively growing shoots are more severely damaged than older plants, leaves or branches. Infected leaves may be dwarfed, curled or deformed.

The white mildew on the plant surface is actually composed of the threads (mycelium) and asexually produced spores (conidia) of the powdery mildew fungus. These spores are wind-blown to other parts of the same plant or other plants of the same species. Powdery mildew fungi are quite host-specific, so for example the mildew on zinnia will not spread to dogwood or sycamore, and vice-versa. Also, they are obligate parasites, meaning that they can only grow on living plant tissue.


Some powdery mildew fungi survive the winter as colonies of mycelium, but many switch over to sexual reproduction in the fall, producing minute brown to black specks amid the old mycelium on the dying leaf or other plant part. These survive the winter and in the spring release another type of spore to start the cycle over.

These two seedlings maybe beyond help. The second one looks dead Check by scraping a small bit of bark off the stem and if the color under the bark is green it is still alive). And the first is severely infected.

Fungicides should be sprayed on the foliage to control the mildew. IF you have additional seed the seed should be washed in a chlorox solution to remove any spores on the seed. Then plant them in new potting soil. As the new seedling forms a couple of leaves you can spray the fungicide to keep the mildew from infecting the new sprout.

Yes hardwood seedling will drop their leaves in the winter the same as large trees do.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: First of all thank you so much for the information!  Do you have any suggestions as to the type of fungicide?  Also can you tell me the ratio of Chlorox to water (I assume) for the solution?

Answer
Fungicides generally recommended for powdery mildew control include: Triadimefon (Bayleton, Strike); Triforine (Funginex), Thiophanate-methyl (Cleary's 3336, Domain# and Propiconazole #Banner).
Sorry I left them off. mix 1/2 to 3/4 cup of Chlorox into a gallon of water.