When I first bought a new house, I realized that the front trees were a little overgrown. I was worried about a branch breaking in the wind and smashing into a window or the roof, and so I decided to invest in professional tree service. When the arborist came, he had more concerns than just a few overgrown branches. Apparently, a few of my trees had also developed serious pest infestations, and I was worried about what it might mean for their health. He carefully trimmed each tree to ward off disease, and within a few weeks, they were looking a lot better. This blog explains how a professional tree trimmer could help you, so that you aren't left with dying trees.
Keeping Your Trees Healthy
Brown Rot: How To Spot It And Treat It On Peach Trees
Joshua Mercier
Brown rot is a fungal disease that can infect many stone fruits, but is particularly common in peaches. Large peach farms usually have programs to prevent this disease through frequent spraying and careful pruning, but if you just have a peach tree or two on your property, you may not undergo these preventative measures. Thus, it's important to know the signs of brown rot, so you can treat it properly if your tree becomes infected.
Signs of Brown Rot in Peach Trees
- Blossom and Twig Blight: Signs of brown rot often first appear on the twigs, but since many tree owners don't know what they're looking at, the blight is often ignored. Twigs of trees infected with brown rot will develop little dark brown cankers, or sores. These may wrap entirely around the twig, or they may resemble spots. As the spots age, they start exuding a gummy substance. Then, they may develop a grayish white spore mass around the time the blossoms appear on the tree. Some blossoms may then develop fuzzy spots, depending on how severe the infection is at this point.
- Fruit Symptoms: If the disease is not thoroughly addressed by the time fruit sets, then the peach crop will be ruined. As the peaches approach maturity, they will suddenly develop large brown spots. These spots may encompass half or more of the peach. The peaches will then fall to the ground and rot prematurely.
Treating Brown Rot in Peaches
If you're able to notice the infection in the early spring when just the ends of the twigs are affected, you may be able to save your peach crop by having the tree sprayed heavily with fungicides and by having the most infected branches removed. However, if you don't act quickly, you'll end up losing your peach crop that year.
Once the infected peach crop has fallen, you should thoroughly clean up the rotting fruit, as it can serve as a harborage point for the fungus. Have the tree pruned by a tree care expert who can distinguish between the most infected branches and those that are healthy enough to leave in place. Any large cankers (sores) on the tree's trunk or larger branches should be cut out. The following spring, the tree must be sprayed with fungicide. Depending on whether signs of infection reappear, your tree care expert may then recommend spraying the tree repetitively throughout the growing season, or simple monitoring it for signs of reinfection.
Brown rot is a very destructive disease, so if you think your peach tree may have it, contact a tree care expert like Yarnell Tree Co Inc promptly.
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