Plum Tree are susceptible to the same disease that most other Harlan Stone fruits ache from . Viruses , bacteria and fungi infect plum trees . Recognizing the type of disease will help you make up one’s mind how to control it . symptom in each family are similar and sometimes indistinguishable , especially to a tyro nurseryman . If you are unsure what pain your Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , take a sample distribution to your local county annex office for diagnosing and advice .
Prevention
The best prevention for disease in plum Tree is a respectable industrial plant . Protect tree from injury and mechanically skillful damage due to lawn mowing and improper pruning . Disease often enrol the tree at the level of accidental injury . Fertilize with a balanced formula only when need . Avoid over fertilizing . Prune aside diseased or damaged branches and protect the cuts with sealing chemical compound . Commercially propagated plum tree tree are transplant onto resistant rootstocks . Choose a tree diagram with rootstock that is immune to the most unwashed problems in your area .
Control
keep in line fungal diseases by using a fungicide spray combined with proper pruning , include lop the stinger with a sealing compound . Remove damage and septic branches before the buds appear in the spring , cutting at least 4 inches below the morbid Sir Henry Wood .
Bacterial diseases are not easily controlled . bacterium is spread through the soil and by steer and rain . avert institute susceptible trees near infected plant and allow several years before replanting in the same spot .
Viruses taint the tree through contact with diseased plants , through morbid seed and by grafting with pathological tissue . The only control is to take away infected trees and use disease devoid tree from a reputable glasshouse .
Fungal Diseases
Fungal disease are most active in the spring during florescence and after the fruits have started to mature . Often , small-scale cankers or growths will appear on the branches , eventually strangling the arm . The growths are the reference of spore that spread out the disease .
pitch-black knot is a uncouth disease in plum tree trees due to the fungus Dibotryon morbosum . cushy green knots appear , eventually becoming hard and black .
Plum pockets are triggered by a Taphrina fungus . The yield is distorted in sizing and appearance , form a empty yield that is 8 to 10 times its normal size of it . Some Taphrina fungi also deform the tree diagram , injure or kill the shoot .
Brown rot , triggered by the Monilinia fructicola fungus , also attacks plum Tree . Often the first sign of brown rot is infected blossoms that turn brown and continue on the tree through the summertime or ripe fruit that develops a dark-brown rot . The branches also become infected , constitute a pestilence which can eventually choke the branch . Young shoot wither away .
Perennial cankers are slow grow , ellipse canker that grow until the branch or trunk is girdled and die .
Verticillium wilting is triggered by a dirt - borne fungus . The leaves are light colored and lack luster , eventually dropping off the tree . The fungus invades the plum Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree through the root organization and spreads up the tree . Plum trees on resistant root stock are usable .
Powdery mould is a fugal disease that infects plum . A powdery white fungal growing cut through the leave of absence . dim spot finally form on the lily-white surface . The leaf may curl up and shoots may be distorted .
Bacterial Diseases
Plum trees are also susceptible to bacterial disease such as bacterial billet and " shothole " . contagion by these disease are usually first see on the foliage . Leaf spots come o the under side of the leaf , eventually turn black . The dead foliage material falls away , leave muddle in the leaves . Eventually the leaves turn yellow and drop off . Infected fruit have brow spots . Twig contagion seem as cankers in the spring .
Crown gall often infects the tree at the crown , but can also occur on the theme or higher on the stem . The bacterial infects the tree through an hurt . Pruning may worsen the infection .
Viral Diseases
Plums are susceptible to numerous virus diseases . Viruses rarely obliterate the tree , but they may weaken the tree and exit it vulnerable to injury and other disease .
Prunus ringspot is one of the most common viral diseases , causing leafage abnormalities and stunting tree increment . Other viruses have similar symptom .
