Apple Scab
I am currently undertaking a pest and disease module as part of my degree at Myerscough College in Lancashire and would like to know what your readers would rate as the five most common or most damaging apple diseases?
Ben Clansey
See Fruit Forum main web-site for an article on scab on apples and pears: ‘Closing Down the Scab Factories’ by Adrian Baggaley.
Photograph courtesy John R. Hartman. Reproduced with permission from Vaillancourt, L. J. and J. R. Hartman. 2000. ‘Apple scab.’ The Plant Health Instructor. DOI: 10.1094/PHI-I-2000-1005-01. Updated 2005.
I would definitely rate scab, mildew and canker as the big three!
The top five diseases would be, in order of seriousness: scab, powdery mildew, canker, brown rot (as blossom wilt and storage rots) and phytophthora which I understand is crown rot and collar rot. All of these are fungal diseases. After last years very wet season there is a lot of canker and wood scab about.
Insect pests are legion, the most serious being codling moth, rosy apple aphid, winter moth, capsid bug, apple sawfly etc etc etc.