GallBusters - Photo Gallery

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Photographs on this page show various stages and symptoms of crown gall on trees.

Click on the photographs below to enlarge for better detail.

To watch videos of the treatment process, visit our Video Gallery.

No Gall Removal

Twelve year old orchard in which no gall removal occurred; about an 80% infection rate!

Yellowing-Out

An example of yellowing-out during the heat of the summer as a result of gall encircling most of the trunk.

Crown Gall

A tree succumbing to the effects of crown gall.

Removal

Extensive removal of gall can save a tree and increase its productivity. Notice the band of healing tissue on the left after just one year.

Two Year Old Tree

This shows how rapidly gall can infect and encompass a young two year old tree. Probably infected prior to planting as a seedling.

Gall Bacteria

Notice how the gall bacteria has infected the thin, new healing tissue that started to cover the gall removal site.

Left Open 3 Years

This crown looks dreadful! It has been left open to the elements for 3 years to assure the crown is free of gall. Time to fill in the hole.

Crown Gall Gone

This is the tree with the dreadful crown. Without looking at the crown, one would never know it had such radical surgery to remove the gall.

Two Years Later

A large trunk gall with the healing tissue enclosing the gall removal site about two years later.

Closed Removal Site

A totally closed removal site. Most trunk galls if removed and treated correctly rarely get re-infections. They are above the soil that harbors the gall-causing bacteria.

Total Removal

Two methods of controlling crown gall: total removal as shown here and Drill-and-Fill as shown below. The key is to remove/destroy as many cubic inches of gall as possible.

Trees Pulled

This grower decided to pull all his trees with crown gall. This gall could have been easily removed and treated.

Deep Infection

Notice the amount and involvement of the gall deep under the crown and the loss of root structure.

Fully Treated

What a fully treated tree should look like after 6 months to a year. Be sure to keep the hole open/accessible for a year to prevent reinfection and to see and remove any new galls.

Drill-and-Fill

What a Drill-and-Fill gall looks like after 6 weeks. It’s in the process of slowly disintegrating. Notice the peripheral drill holes to stop the gall from spreading.

Very Infected Tree

A far more complex Drill-and-Fill done to prevent removing too much cambium on a very infected tree, but still kill the gall (reduce the cubic inches) and allow the tree to survive and produce.