Symptoms of Frequent Fruit Tree Diseases
During several recent entries in this space, we gave readers a primer on some of the major tree diseases that impact trees all over the country. Being able to recognize the potential symptoms of such conditions in your trees can make the difference in allowing them proper spraying or other treatments versus allowing the disease to progress too far and threaten the tree’s life.
At Affordable Tree Care, we’re proud to offer tree spraying and health services to help protect your trees and soil from any diseases that might be present, plus pests and other potential concerns. In today’s blog, we’ll get a bit more specific: Let’s go over a few additional disease types that often threaten fruit trees, the kind many homeowners take the very most pride in on their property and perhaps even draw fruit from each season, and how you can identify and deal with them.
Brown Rot
Brown rot is one of the most common fruit tree diseases out there, impacting a huge variety of tree types. It can affect peaches, plums, cherries, apples, nectarines, pears, apricots and even quince trees.
If your fruit tree has brown rot, you’ll begin to notice stems, flowers and fruits alike becoming covered with a brown fungus. Over time, this fungus will mummify the fruit, making it unhealthy to eat. Treatment of brown rot involves removing the impacted sections of the tree, pruning it to allow sunlight and air to get in and circulate around, preventing further issues.
Peach Scab
There are a couple conditions that are particularly common in peaches, nectarines and plums, and one of them is known as peach scab. This takes place when fruit and new tree twigs become covered in black, round spots, spots that are then surrounded by their own yellow halo. Like with brown rot, the primary treatment method for peach scab is removing the affected part of the tree with professional pruning.
Leaf Curl
Leaf curl is another of the conditions that may regularly affect peaches, nectarines and plums. When it hits, you’ll notice leaves that are drying and curling up on themselves despite receiving proper water and nutrients.
In cases of leaf curl, treatment is a bit different. We recommend spraying or injecting a fungicide into the area before the bud swell period begins, which should solve your issue.
Bacterial Canker
Another disease common to virtually every kind of fruit tree is bacterial canker. This disease is characterized by holes in leaves and new shoots, plus the potential for entire branches to die at once. The most common trees affected here are stone fruit trees, plus those that deal with significant frost damage. Treatment involves cutting off the affected branches below the diseased area, then applying fungicide.
For more information on symptoms of tree diseases that impact fruit trees, or to learn about any of our tree spraying, trimming or removal services, speak to the staff at Affordable Tree Care today.
