Garden Medley

Some fruit trees are quite susceptible to disease. This is particularly true of pitted fruits, such as plums, peaches, nectarines and cherries.

Brown rot is one very common disease to fruit trees. This fungus is quite the troublemaker, growing on fruit left on the tree. It can travel from fruit left to rot on the tree to fruit just ripening, ruining the fresh fruit.

Brown rot is in part caused by poor air circulation. You can help your tree avoid it by regular pruning, which will improve air circulation. The other, hopefully obvious thing you can do to help is remove all fruit when the season is over, even if it is unusable.

Another common problem is the cytospora canker, also called valsa canker. This is a soft, dark area that appears on branches. Gum appears on the bark, and the problem develops into a sunken area beneath the gum. Through the years, the bark breaks down and a black fungus develops.

As this generally enters through wounds on your tree, the first thing you need to do is prune your tree correctly. Make sure you prune at the right time of year, and not when the weather is too wet or the tree is dormant. Insects can also cause damage which allows this to enter.

Cytospora canker can infect a variety of trees, but the fruit tree it most often infects is the peach.

Plum trees are more susceptible to black knot. Pretty easy to figure out what this one looks like just from the name. The rough growths this causes are easy to spot on branches. The only solution is to remove the branch. Don’t make it into mulch for the tree, or the infection will have an easy time coming back.

In general you need to keep up with cleaning up the fruit. Rotting fruit attracts bees and wasps, which can make harvesting your fruit rather more uncomfortable. Rotting fruit also attracts fruit tree diseases. Clean up all around your fruit tree, both on the ground and on the branches as best you can.

Anytime you suspect an infection in your fruit tree, take a sample to your local nursery. Very often employees can help you to identify the problem and how to take care of it. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble by identifying problems as soon as you spot them, rather than waiting. You might even save your tree’s life.

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