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
3 Tree Diseases That Can Affect Plum Trees – And How To Fight Back
Joshua Mercier
Growing your own fruit allows you to combine loves of gardening and landscaping with a tasty summer snack. Stone fruit trees such as plum trees are great additions to any yard if you have a bit of patience. Plum trees require frequent pruning to both manage the size of the tree and allow the fruit room to grow. You also need to keep an eye out for signs of tree diseases that can affect the trees leaves, bark, or fruit.
Here are three of the common tree diseases that can affect plum trees – and how you can fight back if the disease shows up.
Black Knot
Black knot is a fungus-born disease that causes greenish knots to form on the surface of branches in late summer. As the disease progresses, the knots will become black and larger. The branches can become weighed down with the knots and break off the tree. An infected tree can also experience dieback the following year, which means fewer branches and fruit will grow than normal.
Call in a tree service if you suspect black knot. Careful tree trimming can remove the affected areas without causing further damage. You can then apply fungicide to minimize the risk of the knots returning. Keep an eye on the tree in the next spring to make sure the knots don't start returning. Ask your tree service to trim off those areas immediately and apply fungicide so that the disease can't fester throughout the summer.
Crown Gall
Bacterium can cause crown gall to take hold on the branches and roots of a plum tree. Crown gall shows up as dark swollen areas on the surface of bark. The swollen areas grow darker as the disease progresses and the galls can then start to move onto the trunk. Large collections of galls on branches can cause shedding and dieback the following year.
Galls only take hold where the tree is already damaged. Ask your tree service to cut off galls while carefully avoiding causing any additional gouges or nicks in the tree. Watch the tree for the rest of the growing season to see if more galls appear and to prune off any damaged sections that may appear.
Plum Pockets
Plum pockets is a fungal disease that affects the fruit of the tree. White lesions will form on the surface of the fruit and the fruit will then start to grow rapidly. While rapid growth might sound like a good thing, the growth spurt is due to the disease causing inflammation then decay on the interior of the fruit. Eventually, the fruit will become gray and misshapen.
Call in a landscaper to routinely apply fungicide to your affected tree. Any fruit that has already withered or shown signs of blisters should be removed and discarded safely away from your trees. Contact a company like Northern Virginia Tree Experts, Inc. for more information.
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