Apple Tree, lubricants?

[DaveRave]

Hello there GB!

I have an apple tree in my back garden that I have only ever tended for, I've never picked the apples but I'm considering it this year.

Each time I have attempted the apples have been covered in a white substance. I assumed it was just plant s**en.

It was kind of gross so I just left it, I don't know why it was covered with this s**en like lubricant but it did not smell, taste or look nice.

None of my friends have had this problem... can any one help?

Is it just the tree, or is someone having me on?

Any information would be very helpfull!

Thank you!

-David

[David Hare-Scott]

Assuming that it is not you who is doing the leg-pulling, plants do not have s**en so it must be something else. Can you describe it in more detail? Better still how about a picture.

D

[echinosum]

Mysterious. Do you mean the fruits or the trees are so covered? There is a tree disease called southern blight (Sclerotium rolfsii), colloquially tree mucus, which affects apple trees, but the "mucus" is on the bark rather than the apples. Common in North America.

Powdery mildew is a white coating, but it's powdery rather than slimy, and on the leaves rather than the fruit, though I suppose it could get knocked onto the fruit.

In an area very close to bee hives, plants can get covered in pollen dropped by bees as they return to their hive, but this covers everything not just apple trees.