I live in Sussex County, NJ and Cedar Apple Rust is a major problem here.

About two years ago I planted four apple trees without much forethought or information and they are getting hammered by Cedar Apple Rust every year.   I started reading about apple trees and man are they technical.  I wanted to start planting an orchard so I would have early, mid, late and very late bloomers to pump up my pollinators.  it looks like almost all of the Very Resistant Varieties are early/mid.  Also, trying to get Very Resistant CDR trees that are in the same flower group leaves you with a really limited selection of trees.  I have read the Arkansas paper on CDR but it seems to be out of date with all the new varieties coming out.

The Liberty apple seems to be the stand out of the bunch but it's a triploid so it needs two other trees that will also pollinate each other. Most of the apples that are CDR, very resistant are not apple trees I would pick based on taste tests.


Does anyone know of updated lists of CDR Very Resistant Trees or have any experience with planting the varieties that are just Resistant? 

Have you found a group of resistant trees that you are happy with? I'm in Zone 6

Is rootstock affected by cedar apple rust as I would like to just graft a resistant variety to the trees in place?

Regards, Scott

The one grafted apple I have, that was supposed to be highly rust resistant has the worst case of it in our apple area of the orchard.

I have Arkansas Black Apple trees for our main apple crop, I have found that making sure there are enough trace minerals in the soil over the year is the best prevention method.
The trees fare far better than I had hoped, even though they still get some rust struck leaves, the trees retain their fruit and most of the leaves aren't hit.
I expect this to continue to get better every year since I am continuing to add Sea-90 on a yearly basis. It contains 95 minerals and that is the only amendment I have used since these trees were planted.

I am in the middle of a five year study on the effects of high mineral content of the soil for Arkansas Black Apples and when  it is completed, I'll post some of the results here.

Redhawk

Bryant RedHawk wrote:The one grafted apple I have, that was supposed to be highly rust resistant has the worst case of it in our apple area of the orchard.

I have Arkansas Black Apple trees for our main apple crop, I have found that making sure there are enough trace minerals in the soil over the year is the best prevention method.
The trees fare far better than I had hoped, even though they still get some rust struck leaves, the trees retain their fruit and most of the leaves aren't hit.
I expect this to continue to get better every year since I am continuing to add Sea-90 on a yearly basis. It contains 95 minerals and that is the only amendment I have used since these trees were planted.

I am in the middle of a five year study on the effects of high mineral content of the soil for Arkansas Black Apples and when  it is completed, I'll post some of the results here.

Redhawk

Thanks for the response Redhawk.   I planted Comfrey around the apples hoping that will help, but too early to tell.  I'm really in the first year of my food forest so I haven't spent much time doing any tweaking just infrastructure, planting and throwing chips.  I will check out the sea 90.  Good luck with your study, look forward to the results. 

I love comfrey as a companion plant, the only problem with it is that if the minerals aren't there to start with, the comfrey can't create the missing minerals.
This is the same problem all "mineral Mining plants" have.

Redhawk

I have a Sundance apple that is in really bad soil, heavy clay and doesn't drain well in the winter, and it still does pretty well against the rust.  It is a patented variety so that will restrict your propagation options.