Hello and a very warm welcome back to HuwsNursery and in today's video we are going to be looking
at not only at how to identify canker, but also how to remove it effectively. So about
4 years ago I actually filmed my dad doing a canker tutorial and that has had nearly
70,000 views so I know there is interest and I have been on YouTube and I've tried to find
other videos to do with removing apple canker and I was quite unsuccessful. So I thought
I'd do another one where we look at how to first identify it and then we will be looking
at the simple ways of how to prevent (and remove) it. But if you have a lot of canker
then you might want to check out the old video. Obviously the recording quality isn't as good
but the information and value is in there for you, so I hope you enjoy. What we're looking
at here is a tree that you may recognize from an earlier video. Basically we had apple canker
right in the join of the fork of this tree, not the best place to have it and I actually
chiseled it out. So its actually healed over really nicely so what we are doing here is
revisiting this tree because we will have a quick look around it and there are places
where canker is reappearing. But basically I'm gonna show you that we can live with apple
canker as long as we keep on top of it. So we are not going to cut the tree out, we are
not going to kill it, cut it down, we're gonna live with apple canker. Okay the first thing
we need to think about is what tools do we need for this job? So it is quite handy to
have them in holsters so that they're easy to access. This is a pruning knife, and this
is for scraping off canker around a lesion on bark. A good pair of secateurs. And a really
good pruning saw, this is a Silky Gomtaro and I think it is possibly the best one and
it stays nice and sharp and the reason why I have a glove is because it is really useful
to protect your glove hand because the saw is so sharp, it if (the blade) bounces off,
I have got the protection. Now all of these, when we are moving between trees, we don't
want to spread infection. So, I have a little pot of milk here which has anti-bacterial
properties and canker is an air-borne fungus so every time I go to a different tree I need
to wipe my blade with some milk. In terms of recognizing apple canker, you can see the
little red fruiting bodies which shows the canker is still active here and it is important
to remove it. And all the branches and little bits that you get (prune off) it is important
to grab them all, pull them together and burn them as quickly as possible because it is
an air-borne fungus and it loves damp weather. So the next time it is damp, these will be
sending out spores and trying to infect other trees so you want to get rid of it, burn it,
that is the really important thing. So what we need to do is have a good look around the
tree to see if we have got any canker in it. And having looked on this branch here we can
see this disscolouration, yeah it doesn't look very healthy at all so basically for
removal of a tip like this. Rather than just thinking we are going to cut it here, because
that might get rid of it - so you could do that and say have a look, it is clean (no
brown part), that's fine! But if we do that we will stimulate a bud here and it is better
to produce, to get it so this becomes the new leader so it is always better to take
it back to an emerging branch than just cut randomly in the middle because you'll stimulate
other growth. So we have cut this the way we want to and there is no sign of canker
left because it is all green. If you've got any brown in it we will show you that on a
later one, you will need to cut further in. But you always have to track back on a branch
that has canker because the chances are it has appeared somewhere else. So if we follow
this back along here, there is a very nasty looking lesion here on the tree just here
so we need to remove that. So I'm going to cut this closer than I normally would just
to see if the wood is clean behind it to make the point. Okay so you see that is clean so
that is okay but what we have done here is that we have cut back to a fruiting spur so
the tree will try to get another bud going. So we can control that by choosing which bud
we want to have. So there is actually a dormant bud a bit further behind and I'm actually
going to do a slanting cut to there and then the trees energy will be put into this bud
growing here. We are also looking at fruiting buds because sometimes canker can be attracted
there, you can see it here, this but is possibly alright but I am going to take it back to
a dormant bud. Fruiting buds are the ones which look a bit fluffy and stick out but
the dormant buds is this little lump sticking there. If I cut that at an angle there, to
shed the rainwater there, this one (bud) will actually grow from here and again we are looking
for clean green, we have got the clean green there so we know we have got rid of the canker.
Just behind it we have got a fruiting spur that is not looking very happy. I am going
to cut this all the way back to the branch and hopefully again have clean green wood.
Actually I will tidy that up a little bit more because there is a little bit of brown
there. It is okay but I think I'll just try and get rid of that. So on this branch we
have actually got a fruiting spur which has got canker and it has actually gone down lower
than we can cut with secateurs so I know if I cut that there we will still have unhealthy
looking wood there. So this is where my saw comes in and I am going to cut a little bit
of a v-notch into here. Now again if you didn't need this branch, if you have got canker it
is always better to cut the whole branch off but this is quite an important one so I'm
going to try and keep it. So if I cut underneath it that way, and just so I don't make the
whole too big I will come back from this way and I have gone back to clean green wood again.
Okay again we have spotted another bit here which is looking quite nasty and again we
have got a bit of an upward branch coming here, I don't actually need it because I have
got this one but again just to see what happens, what I would ideally be doing is cutting this
at an angle. If you can see in there we have got the brown in there. That is still showing
signs of infection as I suspected. So we have not cut back far enough on this one so we
are going to have to look for another place along the branch. Remember we have got a fruiting
but there, and then a little lump there, there's a dormant bud, there is a dormant bud there.
If we cut to an upward facing bud, it will come up like that. If we go to a downward
facing but it will come out like that so this here we don't really want it to go up because
there is traffic, a lot of congestion. So I need to find the dormant bud underneath
which is just here. Again cutting at an angle away from the bud and we're looking...we have
still got some brown, still no good! So we have to track back again, look for the next
bud which might be a candidate, I've got one just here underneath. We will do a close-up
of that after I have cut this off so you can see what it looks like. So I am cutting again
there, unfortunately it has still got the canker. So this was the dormant bud, and it
is quite different from a fruiting bud which sticks out. So it is still travelling back
so I am looking for another bud - this one should be okay hopefully this should come
out like that. See if we can get clean wood here...still got brown bits. This is the way
it works, you just have to keep tracking back. And we finally have clean and green. So that
is the process, you follow it back until you get clean and green and that is the way you
can live with apple canker. (Important reminder) Due to canker being an air-borne fungus, the
best thing that you need to do is when you cut off the infected parts off your apple
trees, you want to put them straight into a plastic bag and then you can either burn
it (the prunings) or throw it away as rubbish because you don't want those bits that are
affected lying on the ground of your orchard because they're air-borne they can then spread
to other trees. So thank you very much for watching this video. I hope you've found it
informative but if you have any further questions to do with canker or anything to do with growing
your own apple trees then don't hesitate to ask down below in the comments or you can
simply ask me on snapchat (huwsnursery) that is more of a direct way that I am trying to
speak to you guys and I think it is a really fun and exciting way to share advice and things
like that. Thank you once again for watching, don't forget to like and stay subscribed and
stay tuned for a video coming soon!