Summer residents often cut down a tree when aphids have infested, the leaves have withered, or the branches have dried out. Fruit trees and shrubs need care, and if there is no appropriate care, they die, infecting nearby plants with diseases.
It is not always clear why the process of drying of leaves began; the tree has dropped all its leaves or has completely dried out. You need to figure out what to do when the plum dries.
Reasons
Plum fruits feed not only people, but also various microorganisms that are not so easy to detect.
The plum tree suffers from three types of infections:
- bacteria;
- mushrooms;
- viruses.
Non-infectious causes of wilting:
Infection mainly occurs from disturbed ecology and abandoned areas nearby:
- Gum bleeding - translucent “tears” flow from the damage and freeze, so the plum heals itself, sealing the wounds. But this weakens the tree and increases the risk of contracting serious diseases. Damage to the tree is treated with garden varnish or copper sulfate. In case of extensive damage, diseased branches are pruned.
- Damping off is damage to the bark in the root zone when snow falls in large quantities on the ground that has not had time to freeze. By compacting the snow and stamping it against the trunk, damping off can be prevented. Someone shovels snow away from the trunk so that the soil freezes. Then the snow is shoveled back.
- A violation of the water balance occurs due to drying out of the soil or excessive wetting of the soil and roots. Stagnation of water or drought contributes to the death of the root. In the dry season, you should water abundantly: normally 10 liters per 1 sq.m of the entire crown area. Excess water must be drained away. This can be done using grooves.
- Plum trees frozen in winter quickly dry out in the spring. There's no help here. Next time you should choose a frost-resistant variety and the right place for planting.
- Infection of wood weakened by frost or impaired water supply leads to the drying out of first individual branches and then the entire plant. The water supply needs to be adjusted and measures taken for next winter if most of the tree survives.
- Gardeners rarely encounter water rats, but the rodents do a lot of damage: in winter they eat the bark of young plums, in summer they eat the roots. To prevent rodents in the fall, the plum trunk is tightly tied with spruce branches with the needles facing down, and during the thaw the snow is trampled down near the trunk so that rats cannot reach it.
- Insect pests should be sprayed with chemicals. It is important to spray correctly so that the fruits do not accumulate harmful elements - before flowering, immediately after flowering or before the fruits ripen, and, if necessary, even after leaf fall. Insecticides are excellent for treating insect pests: “karbofos” or “phosphamide”, which must be treated before and after flowering, as well as in early August, when pests lay larvae. If the tree is affected by sapwood and leaf rollers, which eat away the passages in the tree, the drugs are powerless - the branches will have to be cut off and burned.
It’s not difficult to deal with non-infectious causes of plum drying, you just need to eliminate the shortcomings.
Infectious diseases
If you do not pay attention to the modifications of plum leaves and fruits, other plants will become infected, and soon you may be left without a garden.
Virus
Smallpox (sharka) affects all stone fruits: cherry plum, apricot, cherry, etc. First, the leaves are affected: light rings and stripes form on them, which turn yellow and dry out. Then the fruits become infected: they change color and become covered with light, depressed rings that look like pockmarks - hence the name. There may also be stripes. The fruits become deformed, turn brown, fall off early, and transparent gum appears on the “pockmarks.” The infection is carried by aphids from other plants, or perhaps the virus was already in the purchased seedling or entered through an untreated instrument.
Chlorotic spotting (ring or mosaic) starts from the leaves, only in the center of the resulting pattern does a hole form and dead tissue falls off. The leaves become smaller, narrower, become tough, with wrinkles. It is transmitted by the same routes as smallpox, and can be transmitted through pollen.
Viral diseases of plums, as well as fungal “Milky Shine” and bacterial “Witch’s Broom” cannot be cured with the drug. The plum will have to be uprooted and destroyed.
However, it is imperative to take preventive measures to protect neighboring and future trees: in the spring, before buds appear, it is necessary to spray the trees Bordeaux mixture 3% (300 g per 10 liters of water) and repeat the procedure after flowering with the same drug, but only 1%.
Fungus
Fungi are widespread in dense plantings and humid climates, but outbreaks can occur even in northern regions due to rainy summers:
Cytosporosis (infectious drying out) leads to complete drying out of the plum. The tree is affected through damage to the bark, which leads to tissue death. You can see small black tubercles under the dead bark - fungal spores. It is necessary to spray the tree with Bordeaux mixture 3% (300 g to 10 liters of water) or fungicides.
Clusterosporiasis (hole spotting) affects not only the leaves, but also all above-ground parts of the tree: reddish spots appear on the leaves, turning into holes, then the leaves dry out. The shoots and bark also become covered with red spots, and gum is visible at the affected areas. The buds darken and fall off, also with flowers and fruits. Fungal spores spread quickly through insects, tools or wind. For treatment, Bordeaux solution 1% (100 g to 10 l of water) or copper chloride (40 g to 5 l of water), as well as the drug “topsin M” are sprayed. Many people treat the soil and trees before flowering with suitable fungicides.
Moniliosis (gray rot) is compared to a burn, because... the consequences are similar. The affected branches dry out at lightning speed, but the flowers, fruits and leaves do not fall off. The disease is easily recognized by rotting fruits that deteriorate right on the branch. The spores easily survive the winter and in the spring they “attack” the surviving crops with renewed vigor. Bordeaux mixture 1% or copper chloride will help in the fight.
Pockets (bags) are formed as a result of infection with fruit spores: plums of an unusual elongated shape in the form of bags with virtually no seeds. The fruits do not ripen, do not grow, and soon dry out and fall off. Spray with Bordeaux mixture 3% (300 g to 10 l of water) or fungicides.
Coccomycosis affects fruits and leaves: they are distinguished by red-violet and sometimes even brown spots, which soon cover the entire plum. The fruits grow irregular shape and are not suitable for food. Leaves in short time become yellow or brown, after which the tree sheds them. Treat with copper sulfate or Bordeaux solution 1%.
The milky sheen is distinguished by the silvery color of the leaves and air bubbles in them, then the leaves dry out. Brown spots are visible on the trunk and branches, then the plum bark darkens and begins to fall off in strips. There are cases of infection through vaccinations. It is impossible to save the tree; in this case, you should only uproot it and burn it. Treat the soil with Bordeaux solution or copper-containing preparations, biofungicides.
Curliness is visible in the shape of the leaves: they corrugate, curl, turn yellow or red. Then a plaque appears, the leaf dries out and falls off. The fruits are deformed or do not set. The fungus spores cannot withstand frost, and most often the disease rages for only one season.
Plum rust is characterized by the appearance of correspondingly colored spots on the leaves, which darken in the fall and become like small pads. Zineb, a copper-containing preparation, helps a lot.
The sooty fungus affects the plum leaf - it seems to be covered with soot, it turns black all over, but this is just a coating that can be easily wiped off or washed off. Therefore, it is easiest to get rid of this disease. Spray a soap-copper solution (150 g of grated household soap mixed with 5 g of copper sulfate in 10 liters of water), copper oxychloride and 1% Bordeaux solution.
With verticillium, individual branches dry out, but the entire tree can die: the leaves below turn yellow and crumble, but on top they usually remain healthy green, like phloem and bark. Young plums most often get sick. The main reason is a soil imperfect fungus of the genus Verticillium.
BIO-preparations effectively fight many fungi: “phytodoctor”, “phytosporin” and many others that are less toxic than standard chemicals.
Bacterium
Bacterial spots on plum leaves appear in the form of small roundnesses and lines. Next, the drying process occurs and the spots turn yellow along the border. The fruits are also covered with raised dark spots with a white border and a scaly surface. The tree quickly turns black and dries out.
“Witch’s broom” is distinguished by the overgrown thin branches that appear as a result of infection of the tree by tiny microorganisms. These branches are sterile, but take up a huge share of nutrition. The leaves below on such branches are covered with bloom.
At bacterial burns and diseases, the plum is sprayed with copper sulfate 1% (100 g to 10 liters of water), fungicides 5% “Azofoska” and antibiotics. The procedure is carried out at the end of spring and beginning of July, during the flowering period, 3 times per season, maintaining an interval of 4–6 days.
Prevention methods
To prevent diseases, timely protection and prevention of all garden trees and shrubs from various kinds of diseases, especially bacterial and fungal.
Prevention must be carried out correctly:
- trim branches in moderation in a timely manner, and treat the cuts with garden varnish;
- prevent damage to the bark;
- do not leave affected fruits;
- do not thicken plantings with new crops;
- buy seedlings from trusted suppliers;
- disinfect garden tools before each treatment;
- Spray with insecticides in a timely manner;
- regularly inspect trees for signs of disease and, if signs of infection are detected, immediately cut off and burn the branches;
- in autumn, whiten the trunk and branches;
- harvest carefully, avoiding damage to the fruit;
- dig ditches without allowing the area to become waterlogged;
- regularly sow green manure, especially mustard, which mushrooms do not like.
Before using any product, it is better to check its safety for the leaves on individual branches. Fungicides are effective, but rather weak, and strong concentrations are prohibited for use due to toxicity.
Plot with fruit trees stone fruit trees should be well ventilated and illuminated by the sun, which heats and dries the wood.
Only through hard work can you end up with a healthy and tasty harvest!
Plum is not only delicious berries, but also a whole storehouse of useful vitamins. However, it should be noted that the cultivation of such fruit tree can hardly be called easy. Plum requires constant care, as do other garden crops. In this article we will talk about what difficulties you may encounter when growing plums.
Quite often, plums experience such an unpleasant phenomenon as the bark warming up at the root collar. Such signs may appear in a tree after the winter season. If the branches are dry, this indicates that the branches are frozen. Sometimes the buds open leaves and it is quite possible for them to bloom, but subsequently the branches may begin to dry out. In fact, this will be the main sign of warming of the bark. Plum is considered a very winter-hardy crop, so the aboveground part of the plum rarely dies due to severe frosts. At the same time, warming of the bark is considered a fairly common phenomenon. All varieties without exception are susceptible to this phenomenon, and the result will be the death of the adducting system and complete destruction connections between the aboveground part and the root system. At the very beginning of spring, the above-ground part will still show signs of life, but over time it will die.
The mechanism of warming the bark itself is quite simple. At the very beginning of winter, condensation will occur due to temperature differences, and then the bark above the surface of the tree will become wet. Then the tree begins to decompose, this process goes very quickly. Sometimes just two days will be enough and the bark will already take on a brown tint and begin to die.
Timely measures should be taken to ensure that this does not happen and your tree does not die. The main preventive measure will be to plant trees where there is very little or no snow before the soil freezes. The southern parts of the site seem to be the most optimal in this regard. You should also be careful to ensure that the plantings do not become too dense. Therefore, you need to select an area where snow will accumulate in smaller quantities.
As for special measures, an excellent option would be to cool the soil near the plum root system. You can try to compact the layer of snow, which will increase its thermal conductivity. In this case, the soil will cool faster and then, due to the difference in temperatures, condensation will not occur and, accordingly, such trouble will not occur with the tree bark. Actually compacting the snow is very easy: just walk on it. However, many gardeners also use the following method: they freeze the soil using metal containers; these containers should be dug into the soil not far from the tree. Containers should be covered with shields to prevent them from being covered with snow.
One more effective method The struggle will be to plant plum seedlings on special mounds of bulk earth. The trees will now rise about half a meter above the main soil. In winter, seedlings and trees will not be covered with snow. The soil itself will freeze before the start of winter, which will protect the plums from getting warm.
Many plum varieties begin to bear fruit around the third year of life, and finish after ten to twelve years. Actually, this can happen precisely due to the warming of the bark, otherwise the tree could bear fruit longer. Trees can replant literally every year, but with to varying degrees intensity. Young trees recover faster, so they will produce good harvest. However, with age, the heating of the bark has an increasingly destructive effect, which the plum is no longer able to fight. It should be noted that there are no varieties that are resistant to bark heating. Therefore, the solution to the problem will be preventive measures and vigilant care for the drain during the summer season.
Your plum tree is not bearing fruit, and you don’t know how to help the plant in this situation? Fruits may be missing from a tree for several reasons. Let's look at the most common ones and find out how to make a plum bear fruit.
Most reasons are related to improper care behind the plant. Therefore, even at the time of planting, you need to take into account all the preferences of this crop. If it is difficult for you to understand what you did wrong during the growing process, pay attention to these most common reasons why fruits do not form well on plums.
Reason 1: physiological decline
It often happens that trees bloom together and form ovaries, but then some of the fruits fall off before they have time to ripen. It is quite difficult to determine the exact cause of carrion. Usually the fruits fall off when the tree does not have enough strength to provide them with food. This may be due to weak root system, unsuitable growing conditions (waterlogging or drought), incorrect agricultural technology (in particular, illiterate pruning), poor soil, etc.
To help the plant produce ripe fruits, you need to try to provide it comfortable conditions. 2-3 times a year, plums are fed according to the following scheme: in the spring, a solution of urea and potassium sulfate (2 tablespoons of urea and potassium sulfate per 10 liters of water) is added under the tree (starting from the age of three), and after flowering - nitrophoska ( 3 tbsp per 10 liters of water).
During the formation of fruits, the soil is spilled with a solution of fermented chicken manure (in a ratio of 1:20). And in the fall, foliar fertilizing is carried out with potassium sulfate and superphosphate (2 tablespoons of fertilizer per 10 liters of water).
Reason 2: self-sterile plum variety
Most plums are self-sterile (they need pollinating varieties), so it is important to choose the right seedlings when planting. Select the optimal pollinators for each variety.
In rainy weather, cross-pollination may not be effective because plant-pollinating insects are not active during bad weather. Then it is better to place self-fertile plum varieties in the garden.
Reason 3: plum diseases
A sick tree is not able to produce a large number of healthy fruits. Often, a plum does not bloom or bear fruit if it is sick with clusterosporia or fruit rot. To prevent the development of these diseases, it is necessary to carry out preventive spraying with fungicides.
At the very beginning of bud break, during flowering, during the appearance of buds and three weeks before harvesting the fruits, use 1% Bordeaux mixture. In the fall, after leaf fall, the trees are sprayed with 3% Bordeaux mixture. It is also important to regularly collect mummified fruits and fallen leaves and burn them.
Reason 4: plum pests
Sawfly and thick-legged larvae, codling moth caterpillars and other insects eat plum fruits and seeds. Damaged fruits fall off and quickly rot. And the flower beetle damages flower buds, so fruits cannot set at all.
Digging and loosening the soil will help against pests. tree trunk circle, the use of hunting belts, traps (jars with fermented compote, beer, kvass are hung on the branches) and regular (3-4 times per season) treatments with insecticides. Such drugs as Fufanon, Karate, Karbofos, Aktara, Mospilan, Calypso have proven themselves well.
Reason 5: bad weather
Fruit buds may freeze if frost suddenly sets in after a thaw. In an unstable climate middle zone this often happens in May. Frequent frost damage to the trunks and freezing of young shoots greatly weakens the trees, which leads to a decrease in yield. In addition, if a cold wind blows during the day and the air temperature drops sharply, pollen sterilization may occur. Then the fruits will not set either.
Plum trees also don’t bear fruit well when the summer is too dry or very rainy. It is impossible to influence the weather, so you can only give preference to zoned varieties. They are more resistant to adverse weather conditions of a particular region.
Reason 6: acidic soil
Plum is demanding on soil composition. It is capable of bearing fruit only on soil with a neutral reaction. In acidic soil you need to add wood ash (200-400 g per 1 sq.m.) or slaked lime (300-500 g per 1 sq.m.).
Define increased acidity soil on the site can be determined by several signs: a whitish “ashy” layer is noticeable on the soil surface; clover is absent or grows very poorly; Moss, sorrel, wild rosemary, heather, buttercups, horsetail, white grass and other plants that prefer acidic soil are actively growing.
Reason 7: improper planting of plum seedlings
When planting a seedling, it is important not to bury it too deep root collar, otherwise the plum will not bear fruit in the future.
Reason 8: Insufficient lighting for the tree
When planting trees in the shade of a house, near tall plants, behind high solid fences, plums do not have enough light, so they refuse to form fruits. Some don't even bloom in such conditions. Therefore, plums should be planted only in sunny areas. Trees growing in the shade should be replanted.
Do not forget that in hot weather there is not enough moisture in the plum. Then she also bears fruit poorly. And in the fall, the tree needs moisture-replenishing (abundant) watering so that it can gain strength and survive the winter safely.
Determine by appearance plants about the imbalance of nutrients used to be something mystical for me. True, I knew about the nutrients themselves, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, at the school curriculum level.
Honestly, I really wanted to be such a “wizard” that I could walk through the garden, look at the twigs, leaves, flowers and say what this plum or apple tree is missing, so that there would be harvests every year, and everything in the garden would smell fragrant, like in heaven corner.
But I'm not a wizard, I'm just learning. Indeed, in practice, it is sometimes very difficult to determine exactly what element a plant lacks, but one must strive for this, because if the plant receives balanced nutrition, then diseases will not attack it, and pests, if they attack, will harm the healthy plant less is applied than to a weakened one.
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is one of the main elements of plant nutrition. When there is a lack of nitrogen, plants stop growing. When there is an excess of nitrogen in the soil, plants, on the contrary, begin rapid growth, and all parts of the plant grow. The leaves become dark green, too large and lumpy. The tops begin to "curl". Such plants do not bloom for a long time and do not bear fruit.
In fruit crops, the resulting fruits do not ripen for a long time, are pale in color, fall off too early, and the fruits remaining on the branches cannot be stored. Excess nitrogen also provokes the development of gray rot in berries garden strawberries, tulips. In general, try not to fertilize tulips with pure nitrogen fertilizers: only complex or phosphorus-potassium fertilizers. Nitrogen fertilizers cause tulips to rot, first the buds, then the above-ground part of the plant, until the bulbs are damaged.
Fertilizing with nitrogen fertilizers, either organic or mineral, should be done only in spring and early summer, when all plants are in a phase of rapid growth.
Fertilizing with nitrogen after short-term spring frosts or drops in temperature is very effective. Such fertilizing helps plants, especially early flowering ones, such as weigela, to quickly cope with stress, recover and begin to grow.
Fertilizing with nitrogen in mid- and late summer significantly reduces winter hardiness. perennial plants, and also contribute to the accumulation of nitrates in vegetables. Late nitrogen fertilizing is especially harmful for a young garden.
For example, in apple trees with an excess of nitrogen, young shoots grow at the end of summer, which are affected when night temperatures drop. powdery mildew, such apple trees may not survive the winter.
Nitrogen fertilizers: urea, ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, ammonium sulfate. Also on sale is a wide selection of complex mineral fertilizers, which contain phosphorus and potassium along with nitrogen. The packaging always indicates the percentage of a particular substance.
Phosphorus
Phosphorus, like nitrogen and potassium, is the main element of plant nutrition. Lack of phosphorus affects, first of all, on reproductive processes: flowering and fruiting.
In the spring, with a lack of phosphorus, buds do not bloom for a long time, roots and new young shoots do not grow. Plants do not bloom for a long time, buds and flowers fall off, flowering is very sparse, fruits also fall off quickly; berries, vegetables, fruits have a sour taste.
In apple and pear trees, with a lack of phosphorus, young growth on the branches is very weak: young branches are thin, short, stop growing very quickly, the leaves at the end of these shoots have an elongated shape, they are much narrower than healthy leaves. The angle of departure of leaves on young shoots becomes smaller (they seem to be pressed against the branch), the lower old leaves become dull, bluish-green, sometimes they have a bronze tint. Gradually, the leaves become spotted: dark green and light green, rather yellowish areas appear throughout the leaf blade. Almost all of the formed ovary falls off. The rare fruits remaining on the branches also fall off early.
In stone fruit crops, such as plums, cherries, peaches, and apricots, the lack of phosphorus is more noticeable. At the beginning of summer, young leaves are dark green in color. Gradually, their veins begin to turn red: first from below, then from above. The red color covers the edges of the leaves and petioles. The edges of the leaves curl down. Apricot and peach have red dots on their leaves. Due to a lack of phosphorus, young plantings of peaches and apricots may die in the first year. In mature stone fruits, the fruits remain greenish and fall off. The pulp of even ripe fruits remains sour.
U berry crops, such as currants, gooseberries, raspberries, honeysuckle, blueberries and other shrubby or herbaceous perennial crops that give us tasty berries, with a lack of phosphorus in the spring, bud opening is delayed, very little growth is formed on the branches, and even that quickly stops growing, leaves gradually become reddish or red-violet. Dried leaves turn black. The set fruits quickly fall off, and early leaf fall is possible in the fall.
Phosphorus is added to the soil in spring or autumn when digging the soil; in summer it can be carried out foliar feeding(by leaves) liquid fertilizers or aqueous solutions of mineral fertilizers from June to August. Flowers bloom for a long time with such fertilizing.
Fertilizers containing phosphorus: superphosphate, double superphosphate, bone meal, phosphate rock. Complex mineral fertilizers with phosphorus content: ammophos, diamophos (nitrogen + phosphorus); ammophoska, diammofoska (nitrogen + phosphorus + potassium) and many others.
Potassium
Potassium is the third main element of plant nutrition. With its deficiency, the winter hardiness of plants sharply decreases.
Plants suffering from potassium deficiency experience an imbalance in water balance, which, in turn, leads to drying of the tops.
With a lack of potassium, the edges of plant leaves begin to bend upward, and a yellow rim appears along the edges of the leaf blade, which gradually dries out. The color of the leaves from the edges begins to change from bluish-green to yellow, gradually the leaves, for example, of an apple tree become gray, brown or brown, and those of a pear gradually turn black.
Thus, if potassium fertilizing is not applied in time, necrosis from the edges of the leaves spreads further to the leaf blade, and the leaves dry out.
Often trees grow normally in the spring, but signs of potassium starvation begin to appear in the summer. The fruits ripen extremely unevenly, the color of the fruits is pale and “dull”. The leaves stay on the branches for a long time and do not fall off, despite autumn frosts.
In stone fruit crops, with a lack of potassium, the leaves are initially dark green, then begin to turn yellow at the edges, and when they die completely, they become brown or dark brown. In apricots and pies, you may notice wrinkling or curling of the leaves. Yellow dots of dead tissue appear on them, surrounded by a red or brown border. After some time, the leaves become holey.
In raspberries, with a lack of potassium, the leaves become wrinkled and slightly curled inward; The color of raspberry leaves appears gray due to the light shade of the underside of the raspberry leaves. Leaves with torn edges appear. A red border appears on the edges of strawberry leaves, which then turns brown.
If there is enough potassium, the crop ripens smoothly, the fruits are very tasty and rosy, the leaves fall on time in the fall, the plants are fully prepared for winter and overwinter very well.
At the first signs of potassium deficiency, you can water or spray the leaves with an aqueous solution of potassium fertilizers.
Potash fertilizers: potassium chloride, potassium sulfate (potassium sulfate), as well as complex fertilizers that contain potassium, for example: ammophoska, diammofoska.
In practice, most often there is a lack of not one specific battery, but several at once.
With a simultaneous lack of phosphorus and potassium, you cannot immediately tell from the plants that they are starving, but at the same time they grow very poorly.
With a lack of nitrogen and phosphorus, the leaves become light green, become hard, and the angle between the leaf and the shoot becomes acute.
With a lack of all three main nutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium - plants not only grow poorly, but also bear fruit poorly. Fruit crops' shoots freeze in winter. Therefore, it is very important to apply complex fertilizers in order to compensate for the lack of one or another nutrient in a timely manner.
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In our gardens. It's time to talk about what plum diseases can deprive us of the long-awaited harvest.
Colorful, perfectly shaped, intact plum fruits are a gardener's dream. At maximum yield.
We see these on tags attached to seedlings and on supermarket shelves.
To see healthy, beautiful plums on a tree you grow yourself, you have to work hard.
Juicy sweet fruit We are not the only ones who love. There are many competitors.
The garden pet is attacked not only visible to the eye offenders, infect it and microorganisms of various types.
They cause plum diseases.
What ails a plum
Like any living organism, the plum tree is susceptible to diseases.
It is affected, like humans, by pathogenic flora of three types:
- Bacterial;
- Viral;
- Fungal.
Non-infectious diseases also occur in trees.
During the years when any of the groups of diseases are rampant, not only the garden can lose its harvest.
An owner who does not take timely measures to protect and treat plants may lose the garden itself.
Infectious diseases of plum
Diseases that are transmitted (infectious) from other plants of the same species or interspecific require the vigilance of the gardener.
If they are neglected, they can break out in the garden like a fire.
Viral infections
Smallpox (sharqa)
Distributed throughout all plum growing areas in Russia.
Favorable conditions for the development of the disease, a suitable climate for it, coincide with the southern region, which is loved by plums.
But it can withstand harsh winter conditions in the middle zone.
Pox is a common disease of stone fruit crops. Apricots, cherries, cherry plums, and other stone fruits suffer from this virus.
You can first notice damage to the sharqi virus on the leaves.
Lightened rings of leaf tissue and stripes on it, depleted of chlorophyll, are a reason to be wary.
The first signs of smallpox are these marks on the leaves. They are lighter than healthy tissue and can be seen through light. Later the spots and lines turn yellow.
Fruits are also affected. This is noticeable from afar due to the abnormally early ripening - the color changes.
Ring-shaped depressed spots also appear on the fruits. This is probably why the disease is called smallpox.
There may also be linear dark stripes. Plums affected by the disease are ugly deformed.
The pulp is affected to the bone, brown. Sticky transparent gum accumulates in affected areas.
Plums fall off early and are unsuitable for use. Treatment of a plum diseased with sharka does not give any results.
Plum trees are infected with smallpox by aphids. They carry the virus from other plants.
Sharka is “polyphagous” and lives not only on fruit trees. It can also get onto the plum from ornamental (clover), medicinal (clover), weeds(nightshade).
Vaccination and planting material may contain a virus. Another transfer route is gardening tools.
When processing several trees, it is worth considering the disinfection of budding knives, pruners, and other equipment - after each one.
Our gardeners will be grateful for the sterility. And they will thank you: with health and harvest.
Chlorotic ring spot
The disease also causes a change in leaf color.
These are rings or a blurry pattern. In the middle of the border, a hole forms from the ring: necrotic tissue falls out.
A mosaic patterned border remains around the holes.
With this disease, plum leaves become smaller, narrow, hard and wrinkled.
Characterized by slow growth of foliage and the entire tree.
Ring spot spreads through untreated equipment.
Maybe through pollen and seeds of infected plants. Through weeds - only in transit: they are temporary carriers of the disease. Pollen springboards.
Like smallpox, it can be transmitted with grafting material and seedlings.
Group of fungal diseases
Fungal diseases of plums are widespread, especially in dense plantings or when crowns are dense.
A warm, humid climate is an additional risk of wood fungus.
Outbreaks of fungal diseases are a common feature of humid summers in any geographic area. Dry years inhibit the development of fungus.
Clusterosporiasis
It affects the above-ground parts of the plum: buds, branches, leaves, flowers, and the fruits themselves.
The disease can be recognized by brown spots on the leaves. The spots have a reddish border.
They crumble and holes form on the leaves. Hence the second name for the plum disease - holey spot.
The shoots become stained and the bark cracks. If the kidneys are affected, they turn black. Flowers fall off.
Affected leaves dry out. Spots also form on the fruits: at first small, depressed, different in color (reddish) from the rest of the surface.
Later they swell and gum oozes from the spots. The fruits dry out.
Since the disease is fungal, active production of spores occurs. They are small, volatile, and spread quickly.
Stone fruit plantations become infected by the transfer of spores by wind, insects, or through equipment.
The yield is greatly reduced - to the point of complete loss. Sick trees weaken.
Moniliosis
The plum disease moniliosis has other names: gray rot (reflects the process in a nutshell) and the official one is monilial burn of stone fruits.
The consequences are really similar to a burn. The branches dry out quickly, but not all of them. Leaves and flowers do not fall.
If a tree is heavily infected, nearby branches dry out, as if a fire had been lit under them and they had been scorched. Therefore, the name contains the definition: burn.
The surviving flowers set fruit. But spores from diseased branches fall on them.
Plums become infected if the skin is damaged: by mechanical friction on branches, by insects, or by microcracks caused by temperature changes.
Close contact with a sick fetus also causes disease in a healthy one.
On plums, moniliosis most often manifests itself as fruit rot.
With this disease, plums spoil quickly, right on the branch.
The biology of moniliosis provides for its overwintering in plant fragments damaged by the disease.
If dried “burnt” shoots went into the winter unpruned, or mummified fruits were not removed, this is an ideal “hostel” for the fungus.
Wait for it in the spring gray rot early for a visit.
In rotten plums, moniliosis overwinters both on the ground and on the branches.
During spring flowering, the spores will fall on the pistils, and from there they will begin destructive work on all parts of the plant.
Plum pockets
The set fruits take on a strange shape.
They stretch out in the form of pouches and do not form seeds (or form only rudimentary ones).
Plums are not like ordinary plums; they are also called blown plums, and the disease is marsupial.
The length of such a bag can be from matchbox or even more. The color remains green for a long time, then turns brown, inedible fruits dry out and fall off. The harvest is lost.
The spores overwinter on a tree where they are able to attach themselves. Under the scales of the buds, in the cracks of the bark.
Infection in spring occurs through flowers; only fruits are affected.
During the season, the mushroom produces one generation and goes through one cycle of its development.
Coccomycosis
Leaves and fruits are affected.
Small spots of purple-red, sometimes brown, color form on the top of the leaves.
Their number and size increase until the entire leaf is covered with spots.
The bottom side is a platform for disputes. They are located in whitish tubercles - pads.
Affected fruits take on an ugly shape and are unsuitable for food.
Leaves fall off, turning yellow or turning brown. The tree goes into winter weakened and may not survive the winter.
Young plums are especially vulnerable.
The fungal infection overwinters in leaves that have fallen and not been collected.
milky shine
The beautiful name is deceptive: the disease is dangerous for plums and often affects them.
An unusual silvery tint of leaves and air bubbles in their tissues are a characteristic sign of this plum disease.
Like all fungal scourges, milky sheen loves wet weather and settles in any damage to the plant.
The color of the leaf changes due to damage: cavities with air form between the tissue and the epidermis (surface film).
The veins and terminal border of the leaves die. Brown spots appear on the branches and trunk. Later, the entire bark darkens and falls off in strips. As the disease progresses, the leaves dry out and the tree dies.
The fungus that has settled in the tissues of the tree is active when the plum is in a dormant period.
It penetrates into the wood through wounds on the bark, and after pruning wintering trees - through cuts.
Poplars, the undesirable neighbors of plums, transmit the infection. A milky sheen falls into the garden and planting material or through vaccinations.
Gardeners are looking for information on how to treat plums and how to treat this disease.
Milky sheen cannot be treated, only prevention is possible.
Polystigmosis
Plum also gets sick with red spotting - polystigmosis.
This is another “burn”, only with a definition – mushroom.
Blurry spots cover both sides of the sheet. The spots are red, initially pale. Later the color is intense red, smooth convex glossy surface.
The spots are convex on top and concave on the bottom of the leaf. Their shape is similar to pillows. To the touch, the formations in the leaf tissue are dense.
In wet years, the leaves fall off already in the summer - the mycelium develops quickly. During drought, the leaf lasts longer, and dark formations—spore repositories—have time to form in the concave side of the spots.
The carriers of the infection are fallen leaves and leaves of trees nearby infected with polystigmosis.
Small, light, volatile spores spread easily.
Curly
The sheet becomes deformed, corrugated, and changes color to yellow or reddish. It curls - hence the name.
Gradually the leaves thicken and become covered with bloom.
The shoots also become deformed and take on a curved shape. Internodes are short and thick.
Then the leaves darken and fall off. The fruits do not set.
If the plum is not severely damaged, there are fruits, but the shape is ugly and the pulp is inedible.
With this disease, plums can rarely survive the winter.
Trees become infected with spores that overwinter under bark scales. The curl cycle begins with kidney damage.
Rust
A common disease of plums, especially in the south.
The spots on the leaves are located between the veins, the color is brownish, with a rusty tint.
By autumn, the spots take on the shape of pads and darken. The spores overwinter in leaf litter.
Interestingly, the original owner and spreader of rust is a perennial garden flower anemone (anemone).
Anemone rhizomes are an ideal “wintering habitat” for the fungus.
If the anemone contains the rust pathogen, in the spring yellow spore containers form at the bottom of its leaves.
There are no rust-resistant plum varieties, but their susceptibility varies.
It is easier to protect the Anna Spett variety - it is not very susceptible. Renklod green also works with careful prevention.
Sooty fungus
The surface of the leaf is covered with a black, soot-like coating.
Leaf pores become clogged, air exchange is disrupted, and chlorophyll formation is disrupted due to lack of sunlight.
The disease has fundamental difference from others - the fungus is located superficially, is erased, washed off.
After this, the plum can be completely cured by treating it with an antifungal drug.
Bacterial diseases
Bacterial spot
It first appears on the leaves as rounded small spots.
Later, the spots lose their roundness and are bordered by broken dark lines. The inside of the spots dries out and crumbles; on the outside, around the border, the leaf is yellowish.
The fruits have black convex spots edged with white. As they grow larger, they change color to brown. The surface is scaly with a depression in the middle.
The infection penetrates through damage to the epidermis. Progresses rapidly in the warm, wet season.
The disease weakens the plum and deprives the gardener of the harvest.
Witch's broom
wildly growing in different parts crowns, dense thin branches - not a mistake in crown formation.
This is a mycoplasma (provoked by tiny microorganisms) disease.
They call it the witch's broom. Barren “extra” branches take away a considerable part of the nutrition and thicken the crown.
The leaves on this bunch of branches are covered with a coating from below. These are fungal spores - a breeding ground for the disease.
Once upon a time, inquisitors considered a fire to be a radical remedy for witches.
Even today there is no better way to use witches’ brooms. They are cut out and burned.
Non-communicable diseases
Gum discharge (gommosis)
Plum, like all stone fruits, is prone to gum formation.
Droplets of the color and transparency of amber flow from the wounds of the trunk and freeze on it. This is how the plant tries to seal the damage.
Gum is the tears of a tree. The culprit of the disease is often the gardener himself. Careless or untimely pruning, untreated bark wounds, unhealed cracking of the stem surface - these are all the reasons for the expiration of gum and the formation of hollows.
Gum discharge weakens the plant. It is not able to heal wounds; the entrance gates of infection remain.
The risk of diseases and infection of plums with pathogenic microflora increases.
Plums affected by gommosis are stunted in growth, become depleted, and may die.
Gum discharge is the scourge of stone fruits. Keeping this in mind, try to prevent it by carefully caring for your plum.
Drying out
A disease that leads to the death of a tree.
The reason is non-compliance with agricultural technology. Stone fruits often dry out, plums are no exception.
A plum can die very quickly; a month of exposure to unfavorable factors (wetting, freezing, gum formation) is a disastrous period for it.
Factors that provoke drying out:
- Planted in an area where groundwater is high, the plum runs the risk of being flooded and getting wet. The plant dries out.
- Plum trees will also die on acidified or highly alkaline soils.
- Salt marshes are also unsuitable for plums.
- The superficial root system freezes in years with harsh winters.
- Heavy pruning in the fall does not give the tree time to recover before winter. It dies in winter, and sometimes it waits until spring, tries to wake up and immediately dries out.
- Gum discharge, not stopped or treated in time, is another factor in drying out. The plant simply expires, weakens, and does not survive.
Treatment of plum diseases
It’s not enough to plant, water and “feed” a tree. He still needs to be protected from illnesses and protected from misfortunes. Take care like a child.
Protection begins with choosing a location. Plum is heat-loving and also loves moisture.
But it needs to be provided with sun and moderate blowing by a gentle wind, otherwise in damp conditions the plum will be overcome by all kinds of diseases, especially fungal ones.
Treating plums for fungal diseases
Fungal diseases of plum are similar both in group and in optimal conditions for development.
They are at ease in gardens, where:
- Plum trees are planted close;
- Poplars grow nearby;
- High level of water under the soil;
- Increased air humidity;
- The tree branches are thickened;
- Pruning is untimely or excessively strong;
- Fallen leaves, especially diseased ones, are not burned;
- Bark wounds cannot be treated;
- They leave mummified fruits in the crown.
From this list it is easy to calculate: what are the agrotechnical (mechanical) measures that get rid of the annoying fungus of various types.
- Do not thicken either the planting or the crown itself. It must be ventilated, blown by the breeze, which the fungus will not like. The sun will also dry and warm the tree, protecting it from disease.
- If the milky shine of plums is not uncommon in the region, and you love both the poplar tree near the fence and the plum fruits in your garden, you will have to sacrifice one of these passions. Which one – choose for yourself.
- Do not plant plum trees “on water”. Where the layer of water lies close to the surface, spring floods or rains will easily destroy the plant.
- The humid climate will not allow you to relax. You can save plums. This will require regular inspections and preventative fungicide treatments. If necessary - medicinal.
- Take care of a living organism - the plum tree. Trim it carefully and according to the rules.
- Disinfect equipment.
- Do not take planting or grafting material from questionable places. Visit the nursery and get a guarantee of the health of the seedlings.
- Take your time and don’t delay pruning. If possible, it is better to minimize it: break out excess shoots in the summer. Thin green branches are easily twisted without leaving wounds. After lignification, the risk of infection increases.
- Cut without stumps.
- Process the cuts. You can rub them with sorrel, then paint over them. Untreated, they will “catch” the infection.
- Burn the cut branches.
- Remove mummified fruits from the branches and shake off any remaining hanging leaves.
- Collect autumn leaf litter from the garden and burn it along with the infected material removed from the plum tree.
- Dig up the tree trunk circles, and repeat the digging in the spring.
Plum plants will require a minimum of plant protection products. But it will require it.
This is Bordeaux mixture. A good old friend, at the same time a formidable warrior against fungus.
Spray several times:
- In autumn, after leaf fall and garden cleaning: the above-ground part of the plum and the trunk circle;
- In the spring, before the bud opens - “along the green cone”;
- Immediately after flowering.
You can use copper sulfate and add soap to its solution. Soap disinfects and increases the ability of the solution to stick to treatment surfaces (leaf, branches, trunk).
Nuances by type of fungus. There are also features in getting rid of different types of harmful fungi:
- If there is rust on the plum tree and an anemone in the garden, the anemone will have to be removed;
- Trees sick with the milky sheen are uprooted and destroyed.
Fighting bacterial, viral and non-infectious diseases
All agricultural practices to prevent fungal infection are observed.
They will also protect you from other troubles - the routes of infection are similar.
But if fungal diseases Treated with fungicides (antifungal drugs), this method will not remove viruses. The main thing is not to bring them into the garden, to prevent the plum from becoming diseased.
If this happens:
- The witch's broom is cut down to healthy tissue, disinfected and the cut is painted over. The broom itself is burned.
- Having discovered a quarantine disease - smallpox, the diseased plum must be uprooted and the affected material burned.
- Young purchased seedlings can be warmed up - viruses cannot withstand the safe temperature for plums of 46°. Warm up by immersion in water. 15 minutes is enough to disinfect the material. Give such a bath to newcomers preparing to move into the garden; they will not carry the virus.
Non-infectious diseases (gum formation, drying out) are prevented by eliminating the factors that provoke them.
As you can see, our favorite plant is threatened by many diseases, so carefully monitor your garden.
Take action on time and save yourself from labor-intensive, lengthy work later. In the next article we will get acquainted with plums.
See you soon, dear readers!
