Tree is very old... beautiful green leafs in spring. Leafs are slowly turning yellow, with black spots. Last summer tree dropped all leaves by August. Tree is hollow in many main branches... growing spurts off major trunk.

Trimmed back old dead branches... not sure if tree is dying or disease. What course of action to extend healthier life? Not interested in cutting tree down... want to save!

Thanks for any words of wisdom to help save tree!!

Hi, David Blakely!

Below, is some information from the following site that you might find to be helpful.

Flowering Crabapple Tree

Quote:

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Common crabapple diseases...

Many of the newer flowering crabapples are disease resistant or tolerant. Disease resistance involves genetic resistance to infection by disease causing organisms. Disease tolerance implies the plant may be affected by certain diseases but are of little health significance to the plant.

Few crabapples possess all desirable characteristics of exquisite flowers, fruit, foliage, growth habit, and disease resistance. This does not mean that other cultivars should not be used. Many crabapples that have varying degrees of susceptibility to disease, could still possess enough merit in the form of flowering characteristics, growth pattern, and shape. Understanding their limitations, these plants are perfectly acceptable in many landscape situations.

There are four diseases that pose a serious threat to crab apples: apple scab, a fungus characterized by black sooty spots or leaves and corky spots on fruits. Fire blight is a bacterium that turns twigs and branches black, eventually killing the tree. Cedar-apple rust is a fungus that creates rusty, corky spots on leaves and, if serious, can defoliate the tree. Less of a threat is powdery mildew is a white fungus that attacks leaves, flowers, and fruits during warm, humid weather and is unsightly.

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There is also quite a bit more information available on that site that you might want to check out.

You say that the tree is very old. I have one too, that's very old. Sometimes it has the same problem that yours does. Sometimes not. Looks beautiful in the Spring! I've cut it back a number of times after it has flowered. I think that some years are better for crab apple trees than other years due to climate and other weather conditions.

It could also be that our trees are dying, too. Unfortunately, they don't last forever.

Is there anything else growing in or around the tree that might also be large? I've found that crab apple trees don't like other things that are too close or in them.

Thanks!

Thanks!