Hello all,
In 08 a neighbor with a 5 yr old Pioneer Mac block on G30 saw extensive amounts of die-back in his trees, starting with trees hanging onto their leaves going into late fall. Spring of 09 showed that the most vigorous trees were affected to the greatest degree with whole limbs, leaders and some entire trees dying. Everything looked good in the spring of 09 in our orchard, which is 7 yr old P-Mac on M26. We wondered if our neighbor had a problem because of G30. Many "experts" looked at his trees and the consensus was "winter injury". In early October we harvested our block and noticed nothing of concern (except scab). In mid-November we saw trees throughout the block with dark leaves that refused to fall. The most vigorous trees seem to be the most affected. Whole limbs seem to die from the tip to or near the truck. Leaders often turned dark brown down to just above the lower scaffold limbs. Trunks below this point are mostly unaffected. Most trees seem to be O.K. at this point in time but nearly 20% of the block has some degree of this malady. None of our other varieties have this problem. Does anyone have experience with this sort of situation? Any ideas would be appreciated. Mark Evans, Northwest Michigan
