Diseases of the apple tree, prevention and treatment of diseases of the apple orchard

Apple trees in bloom - a joyful poetic picture for gardeners, but how disturbing and insulting to see when the apple orchard is sick! Apple diseases can cause a decrease or even complete loss of the crop. At the same time, a natural desire appears to protect your garden and help it cope with diseases, save a long-awaited and healthy harvest.

One desire, as you know, is not enough - you need the appropriate knowledge and experience in order for the treatment of diseases of the apple orchard to be effective. Let's start with an acquaintance with the most common and dangerous diseases of apple trees and with methods and methods for their treatment. In this publication, we will also consider chemical means for the prevention and treatment of diseases of the apple orchard.

We will start the basics of treating diseases of the apple orchard by telling you about the diseases of the apple tree that are most common in our latitudes.

Sources of apple diseases and conditions conducive to their development

Possessing increased winter hardiness, the mycelium does not die even in the most severe and prolonged frosts, some remain and safely produce in the next season, having overwintered in infected buds. A tree infected with powdery mildew loses its winter hardiness and can be severely affected by frost.

A universal preventive and health measure is the elimination of unviable branches and shoots in spring and autumn. It is necessary to take all measures that contribute to the active drainage of the growing soil, and to monitor the conditions for sufficient ventilation of the crown.

To prevent diseases of the apple tree, you can use the Topaz fungicide, which is better to treat the entire apple orchard, especially if there are apple trees of the following varieties: “Ranet Semerenko”, “Boyken”, “white rosemary”. It is optimal to use this remedy at the earliest possible time of the beginning of the growing season, and for the entire further period before harvesting the fruits, treat with Topaz 3 more times at regular intervals. After harvesting, the success of the fight against powdery mildew will be consolidated by a one percent solution of Bordeaux liquid or copper sulfate, at the rate of: 2 tablespoons of the drug, 1 tablespoon of liquid soap per bucket of water.

It is possible to treat trees affected by powdery mildew and an aqueous solution of colloidal sulfur in three doses during the growing season: the first - at the beginning of budding; the second - after flowering, and the third - 2 weeks after the previous spraying. If the results of the treatment give even successful results, preventive measures should not be abandoned - this infection often returns.

It is best to start the fight against fungal diseases of the apple tree, such as powdery mildew and scab, with classical prevention during the spring and autumn processing of fruit trees: harvesting and eliminating by burning fallen leaves, mummified fruits and dried branches. In spring treatment, include spraying trees before flowering with Fitosporin M biofungicide or Bordeaux liquid.

Not everyone, perhaps, knows that such mineral fertilizers in an aqueous solution also work well as fungicides: 15% potassium salt, 10% ammonium nitrate, 10% ammonium sulfate. Use these concentrated aqueous solutions of the listed fertilizers by spraying the tree as a foliar top dressing and fungicide against scab. To prevent it, the percentage of aqueous solutions must be reduced.

Fruit rot - moniliosis on an apple tree

This disease of the apple tree manifests itself at the end of August, during the ripening of the fruits. Protracted wet weather contributes to the activation of moniliosis, especially on apple trees affected by the codling moth and infected with scab. Moreover, rotten fruits are able to share the mycelium of fruit rot with healthy fruits. It begins with a small putrefactive speck that can grow to rot the entire fruit, which becomes loose and unfit for consumption.

Moniliosis is more insidious than other fungal infections, since its symptoms are delayed until the crop is fully ripe, with which the putrefactive fungus is able to deal with great damage to it through the contact of the affected and healthy fetus. Even severe frosts do not kill moniliosis, its spores hibernate on infected mummified apples.

Therefore, an obligatory measure for the prevention of all fungal diseases of the apple tree is a thorough cleaning and elimination through burning of the remains of the fruits of dried, rotten carrion and dead shoots in the autumn-spring seasons. After harvesting the fruits, spray those areas where the foci of moniliosis were concentrated with a 5% aqueous solution of urea. It is not necessary to fight moniliosis autonomously. A frontal fight is required against all infections and pests that can either create conditions for a parallel infection or spread it to all plants.

It is necessary to strictly monitor the appearance in the garden of one or another type of pest: goose, sawfly and codling moth, carriers of moniliosis. It is better to prevent their invasion altogether. Preventive spring spraying of all fruit trees on swollen buds will help, and then a second time immediately after flowering and the last time - after a two-week vegetation interval - on fallen leaves. For this, an aqueous 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid or a 0.3% solution of a suspension of copper oxychloride is suitable.

An effective means of combating fruit rot is the Hom fungicide, which, according to the instructions, is diluted in cold water and carried out at least two treatments: the first - on new foliage, the second - after flowering.

This is important: you need to fight moniliosis by regularly spraying fungicides according to the scheme, combining them with the implementation of the correct agrotechnical measures to care for fruit trees.

You can learn about the appearance of this dangerous fungus on the bark of a tree by the dark ulcers formed on the trunk and branches, which later deepen and capture new spaces of the bark. Both the bark and the affected branches die off and fall off. You need to help the tree immediately, otherwise it is doomed to death.

One of the conditions for combating the disease of the bark of apple trees is the prevention of its mechanical damage, which should include the wounds of pruning branches or sawing out large branches. Places of pruning and sawdust should be immediately treated with garden pitch or natural drying oil. Unprotected wounds will allow cytosporosis spores to penetrate deeply through the wood and cambium and cause a dangerous disease, which is harder to fight than to protect damage to the tree bark.

The Hom fungicide works well against cytosporosis, which must be applied to swollen kidneys, for which a solution of 40 grams of the drug per 10 liters of cold water is suitable.

It is followed by spraying with copper sulfate at the rate of: 50 grams of the drug per 10 liters of cold water. Trees should be treated with this solution before flowering. And after flowering, it is the turn of treatment with a solution of the Hom preparation. The last step in protecting the apple tree from bark disease will be top dressing on the eve of the winter season with phosphorus-containing and potash fertilizers.

Bacterial blight of an apple tree

The cause of this disease is an infection with a Gram-negative bacterium that can infect apple trees of any age. This infection spreads from top to bottom, and it most often enters the garden with the purchase of new uncertified seedlings or cuttings. Favorable conditions for the spread of this disease are warm rains at high air temperatures. As a result of such infection, flowers fall and crop prospects also drop significantly.

You can recognize the disease by the appearance of black spots throughout the tree: the branches and shoots are covered with watery black spots, and the foliage takes on a burnt and charred appearance. With the development of the disease, the leaves are bent and, even completely dying, remain on the branches.

The affected flowers become dark brown and fall off, and the fruits become unhealthy and dark in appearance, stop growing, but remain on the branches until late autumn.

For the purpose of prevention, any planting material purchased without certificates should be especially carefully examined. Carry out preventive spraying common to all fruit trees against diseases and insects that can spread the infection in the garden. It is useful to disinfect the soil with a solution of copper sulfate at the rate of: 60 grams of the drug per 10 liters of cold water.

The next method of preventing bacteriosis can be considered timely pruning of dead branches, best of all at the end of autumn, on the eve of winter. It is necessary to cut off the affected branches below the border of necrosis by 20 centimeters. The cutting tool must be disinfected before and after cutting. Be sure to process the place of cut / cut, covering with a layer of natural drying oil or garden pitch.

All cut material must be burned immediately. And all the trees during the growing season must undergo the required number of fungicide treatments so that they go into the winter healthy and winter-hardy, with sufficient immunity against fungal and bacterial infections.

Milky shine on apple leaves

Such a fungal disease is caused by a basidiomycete. The tree infected with it will gradually die off if the necessary measures for its chemical protection are not taken. External signs of this disease are manifested first by a change in the color of the foliage in the area of ​​​​infection. The leaves become a silver-milky color with a pearly tint. More dangerous manifestations of this disease are expressed by a decrease in the yield of apples, which stop developing and crumble. This is followed by the gradual death of shoots and branches.

Most clearly, this disease manifests itself in the middle of summer and covers several branches, spreading quite quickly throughout the tree, leading to the death of large branches, and then the entire tree.

The impact of apple orchard diseases on the crop

Prevention of apple bark diseases

Apple diseases affect both fruits and leaves and bark. It is often possible to prophylactically prevent tree bark diseases by spring and pre-winter whitewashing of boles and skeletal branches of fruit trees with lime milk at the rate of: 2 kilograms of lime milk per 10 liters of water with the addition of 500 grams of 5% copper sulfate.

If a large number of closely growing fruit trees grow in the garden, then there is a need to treat them with hose sprayers with a 2% solution of milk of lime. The second important need for a thickened garden is to ensure sufficient watering without excess and deficiency throughout the entire growing season of apple trees, especially during the dry hot period. It is very important to apply phosphorus-containing and potassium mineral fertilizers in the required amount in a timely manner and monitor the acidity of the soil, applying liming of the near-stem soil, if necessary.

In this publication, we tried to highlight the most common apple tree diseases and methods of treatment, we hope that this article will add new recipes and ways to combat and prevent diseases of the apple orchard, especially for beginner gardeners, introduce traditional and new preparations for protecting garden trees, widely used by modern gardeners .