Cedar Apple Rust

Trees axed in Troy number 200

TROY -- The city announced this week that it would begin rebuilding Riverfront Park by removing diseased trees.

What they did not say is that 200 trees -- or nearly all of the trees -- are being considered diseased.

Jeff Pirro, a spokesman for Mayor Harry Tutunjian , said just about all the crab apple and red pine trees in the park are diseased and infected, and some others will be moved.

"Almost all of them are infected with a disease of some kind," he said. "The balance of what's left are subject to emerald ash (borer)."

A number of crab apple trees have apple scab, a fungal disease that can weaken trees by causing early defoliation, Pirro said, and many of the red pines have needle rust, a fungus that can cause unsightly foliage and reduced growth.

The decision to remove the large number of trees was made in coordination with Cornell Cooperative Extension, Pirro said, and 95 healthy trees will be planted.

"The design of the park will create a more open park and will be more in line with standards of crime prevention through environmental design," he said.

David Hawley, the executive director of the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Rensselaer County, said horticulturist David Chinery walked through the park with city officials about two weeks ago to educate them about the species and what diseases could strike.

"We would not really try to commit to a specific tree being removed," he said. "The Cooperative Extension is not in the tree-removal business."

Chinery is on vacation this week, Hawley said, but probably would have told him if he had found 200 diseased trees in the park.

"He probably told them that certain diseases were prevalent and it would be their decision," Hawley said.

Laurel R. Gailor, the agriculture and natural resources issue leader for the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Warren County, said apple scab, fire blight, powdery mildew and cedar apple rust are common diseases among crab apple trees in the area.

Common among red pines in the area are armillaria root rot, lophodermium needlecast and Sphaeropsis shoot blight, which was previously known as Diplodia.

Cornell Cooperative Extension recommends species of crab apple that are disease resistant.

To prevent needle rust, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Research Center suggests avoiding planting the pines where goldenrods and asters grow, since the fungus needs both to complete its one-year life cycle.

Cedar-Apple Rust « Backyard and Beyond

, Leading to my post of last year on the subject. This year I was on Nantucket to see the fungus in its blooming glory, all over the eastern red cedars in the backyard. They look like some kind of sea anemone, but the gelatinous horns here are spewing out spores into the wind. A few off these spores will land on apple trees, where the next stage of the fungus’s two year long, two tree species-hosted life-cycle will establish itself.

I do not cease to be amazed.

Cedar apple rust

Cedar-Apple Rust

Cedar-apple rust

Cedar Apple Rust

Cedar-Apple Rust