▲ Discarded apples harvested from a tree infected with apple Canker
"The weather is hot, and now apple trees are getting sick and dying off. It breaks my heart."
Apple farmers in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, who suffered damage from wildfires last year, are now facing a double blow amid a heat wave as apple canker, a plant disease, spreads across their orchards.
On July 22, in Baebang-ri village, Gilan-myeon, Andong, an area that was hit hard by a massive wildfire last year, resulting in burnt houses and apple trees.
Under a heat wave warning, daytime temperatures soared to 33°C (91°F), leaving the village sweltering.
On this day, a resident identified by his surname Song, 55, was hard at work tending to his apple farm, sweating profusely.
Although he has been battling daily heat exceeding 30°C (86°F), he sighed, saying, "What really breaks my heart is something else."
What has been deepening his anxiety recently is apple canker.
It is a type of fungal disease that typically begins to appear on branches and causes the tree to wither and die.
Commercial pesticides are largely ineffective, leaving early pruning of the infected area as the only solution, but even then, if detection is delayed, nothing can be done.
Song recently lost five apple trees due to canker.
On this day as well, he had to cut down an apple tree that showed no improvement despite being treated with a newly obtained pesticide for two months.
As he sawed into the tree, which had dried up from the base, dry sawdust fell off in showers.
The cross-section of the cut tree looked dry, as if it had lost its vitality long ago.
Song said, "If you plant a new apple tree, you have to wait several years before it bears fruit abundantly. Cutting down a tree brings immediate losses, but the most painful part is that it is difficult to generate income for years."
He added with a sigh, "Even if you detect it early and take action, the reality is that you cannot let your guard down because you never know when it will strike again."
With a grim expression, Song picked the apples hanging from the tree one by one and put them into a paper box.
The apples were small in size because they failed to receive proper nutrients due to the withered tree.
Song said, "Apples like these have no market value and cannot be sold. When you cut down a tree, you cannot recover anything spent on chemicals, fertilizer, or labor, which is so upsetting."
Disposing of the cut-down apple trees is also a headache.
Trees infected with canker must be disposed of by methods such as burying them underground due to the risk of contagion, which is reportedly not easy in reality.
Another resident, Oh, 66, said, "As canker has been rampant recently, neighboring farms are struggling. Because there are no effective pesticides, it is difficult to deal with unless you have farmed apples for a long time."
According to the Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services, a survey conducted in May across 12 representative farms in four major apple-producing cities and counties, including Andong and Cheongsong, showed an average canker incidence rate of 2.4 percent.
Following preliminary tests last year, the provincial agricultural institute is conducting field tests this year to develop a new pesticide.
The experiments will be conducted in three phases, and conclusions, including the possibility of commercialization, will be drawn based on the results.
An official from the agricultural institute said, "Because canker usually leads to trees withering and dying, an incidence rate in the 2 percent range is not low. We plan to continue related research and development next year."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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