Diseased apricot trees - help needed

[Zootal]

I have two apricot trees that I planted two years ago. They grew fine the first two years. This year, they budded out and started to grow and were doing fine until a few weeks or so ago. Now one appears to be almost dead, and the second is starting to show symptoms.

Last year I noticed the bark peeling on one of the trees. This year the bark peeling is worse, and may or may not be related. The bark peeling is on all sides of tree and at various elevations. It most definitaly is not mechanical damage, and the location of it makes me think it's not caused by sun exposure. Besides, this is Oregon, the sun doesn't shine much here :).

In the course of about 10 days, the foliage has started to die to the point where 90% of the leaves are dead. The other tree shows bark peeling in one small spot only, and the foliage is starting to wilt and show signs of stress. I've googled around, but didn't see anything that looks like this. Does this look/sound familiar to anyone?

Here are a few pics:

Good pic of the second tree, shows drooping foliage.

damage on second tree, note drooping foliage: damage on first tree. Note how it looks like there are two branches growing side by side under the bark. This pattern is seen in several places: dying leaves:

[Steve]

I've looked at your pictures and I have some comments. First, the peeling bark does not look like a problem. I believe it is just your tree making the change from the young smooth bark to the more mature bark. The picture where you say it looks like 2 branches growing side by side... That's just you tree healing over a damaged or dead spot. The dead area my have been hidden under the bark but as the tree grows and tries to heal over the damage, that's what it would look like. The wilting and then dying leaves is not good news. Two ideas come to mind.

1. It could be that your trees are not cold hardy enough for your area and you are having winter damage to the trunk or limbs. I have seen this in my yard with apple trees that turned out to not be hardy enough. They would leaf out normally in the spring and grow several inches of new growth then suddenly wilt and die because part of the trunk had died. Winter damage could maybe explain the areas in you picture where the tree is healing over dead areas.
2. It could be that your soil is wetter than those particular trees can tolerate. The trees might grow well when young but when the trees get bigger and need a bigger root system to support the top, they can't do it.

Steve

[Zootal]

>>> Bark damage on second tree, note drooping foliage:

>>> Bark damage on first tree. Note how it looks like there are two branches

>>>>>> And dying leaves:

> I've looked at your pictures and I have some comments.

Thanks for the info :-). Winter here was not particularly cold - I'm in the mid-Willametter Valley, Oregon. It was long and colder then usual, but the low temps were not very low - I don't think it dropped more then 22 degrees at night, and even that was for a week or less. We got about a foot of snow, but it immediately warmed up and melted. Wet soil might be an issue, as it does rain a lot here. The ground drains well. When it rains, there is no runoff at all - it all soaks right into the soil. Are apricots more sensitive to wet soil then other trees? I have about 22 trees now, and the rest seem to be doing fine.

Any suggestions as to what I can do, other then just wait and watch?

[Sherwin]

I would look for borer damage. You may see entry holes on the tree, although sometimes below the soil line. There are sprays for them.

Sherwin