Pest Control St. Louis

Preventing Diseases in Fruit Trees

If you maintain any pitted fruit trees such as plums, peaches, or cherries, I'm sure you recognize that those sorts of trees are much more susceptible to diseases than any other type. While the fruits are delicious, it can be rather hard to live with all of the maladies that can plague the life of everyone who has ever grown one of those types of fruit trees.

The main disease that you will hear around the most is called “Brown Rot”. This is a fungus that attaches to many of the leftover fruits after the picking season has finished. Not only does it look disgusting on the leftover fruits, but it also can come back on the newer fruits, rendering them inedible (unless you love eating fungus). To prevent this malady, you should prune your trees often to encourage good air circulation. Buildups of moisture are the primary cause of the brown rot. Also when you are carried out picking for the season, you should eliminate all of the leftover fruits in the tree or on the ground.

A cytospora canker is a disgusting dark, soft area on tree branches. Gum protrudes through the bark, together with a large callus. The pathogen which causes these cankers usually enters the tree through older wounds. If you prune all of the sprouts that occur in late summer, cankers will have a harder time making themselves known within your tree. When you prune, always permit the wounds to mend naturally as opposed to use the wound dressings that you can purchase at gardening stores. I've discovered that these usually do hardly any to help any situation, and only assist make the tree look unnatural.

Those planting plum trees might cope with something called Black Knot. The signs of black not are rough tumors or growths that can be viewed on the tree's branches. If you see some of these, you should immediately chop off the branch it has attached to. If you use branches for mulch usually, don't for this one. This disease can simply re-enter the tree if it is within a certain distance.

Almost everyone who has ever maintained a cherry tree has answered the “Cherry Leaf Spot”. It usually shows itself when there are old dead leaves accumulated on the ground. Preventing this ailment is fairly simple. All you have to do is be fairly diligent in raking up all of the leaves that fall from your tree. If you have already seen signs of the disease, you should destroy all of your raked leaves. If not, then you can try them as mulch.

When your fruits ripen and become ready for picking, you should always be completely finished with picking within 2 weeks. It is best to daily go outside and pick all of the new ripe fruits, together with any that have fallen off of the tree or are starting to rot on the tree. By using this method, you will prevent bees and wasps from becoming too addicted to your tree for nourishment.

Growers of fruit trees are constantly faced with diseases and pests to worry about. However, if you take the correct safeguards then you can avoid most of them. You should also look for any diseases that have been affecting your local area, and attempt to take steps to prevent those as well.