whats wrong with our tree? pictures inside!!

[tdli]

there are some green fungus alike looking thing on the whole main part of the tree and on the leafs, there are yellow spots / dots everywhere on the front and on the back of the leafs, there are some spiky looking thing, looks pretty scary. anyone has any idea whats wrong with our tree? thanks for the help and time.

[img]http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~temong/DSCN0701.JPG[/img]
[img]http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~temong/DSCN0703.JPG[/img]
[img]http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~temong/DSCN0704.JPG[/img]
[img]http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~temong/DSCN0705.JPG[/img]
[img]http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~temong/DSCN0709.JPG[/img]
[img]http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~temong/DSCN0710.JPG[/img]

[The Helpful Gardener]

The trunk photos are lichens; not an issue...

The tree is a crab apple, right? Looks like fire blight and that is a BEAR. Organic type fungicides won't touch it; you will have to call out the heavy artillery on this one, and I HATE to recommend that stuff...

There IS a new product on the market which uses an entirely new biotechnology called harpin protein (actually it's eons old as plants produce it to stimulate their immune systems). It's called Messenger and it's available from Eden Bioscience (through their website). I am trialing it at home now and I am pleased so far, but this would be a real test. Try it and let us know the results...

Scott

[tdli]

thanks for your reply.

i did some research on fire blight and all of the pictures that i saw and articles that i read are showing and saying that the tree /branches will show sign that it is dying, however, this is not the case with my tree.

my concern is those little spiky looking things growing on the back of the leafs - this tells me that the tree is not dying and something abnormal is growing.

i will do more research and if it is fire blight then i will purchase the product you recommended, thanks a lot.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Those growths on the leaves are likely leaf gall, a sign the leaf is trapping insect eggs laid in it. That is likely the vector for the disease...

The beauty of Messenger is it works on ANY disease on ANY plant, so I would treat with that immediately and we can work on the specific i.d. later. It may be as you say that it is not fireblight (though it does look like it), but if something else does it in while you are looking, it doesn't matter who's right! That's why I suggested Messenger; even if I got the diagnoses wrong, the cure still works...

The Helpful Gardener

[tdli]

THG,
Thanks for your reply once again. I did a search and there is a local store that carries the Messenger so I am going to pick some up today (I think they come in 3 little packs) and go home to try it out.

I will keep you guys on how the progress is and I really appreciate all of your advise so far.