Cedar Apple Rust: Those Orange Gobs on Your Red Cedar

You've got walnut-like growths on your Eastern red cedar. That's cedar apple rust, a fungus with a two-host life cycle: it needs both red cedar and apple/crabapple trees to survive.

What You're Seeing

Those dried galls? Last spring they were orange, jelly-like spore masses. This year's galls will produce the next round of spores in April–May.

Management

• On cedar: Mostly cosmetic. Remove dried galls now if you want to reduce spores.
• On apples: Serious—causes leaf and fruit drop. Spray with a fruit-labeled fungicide (myclobutanil, propiconazole) at pink bud stage and follow label.

Key Point

If you value nearby apples or crabapples, remove cedar galls. If not, the cedar will survive fine. The disease just looks weird.