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Increasingly, gardeners are faced with the fact that among the spring greens on the cherries appear brown spots suddenly dried from the monilial burn of shoots. How to defeat cherry monilias, how to treat affected planting sickness?
Owners of household plots, previously not faced with a problem, mistakenly believe that recently faded trees hit the strip of spring frost or unexpected cold rain. Some blame themselves, taking the signs of the disease for a burn from an improperly selected insecticide. In fact, the cause of the death of shoots is the action of a harmful fungus from the family Monilia.
What is a monilial burn of a cherry?
Various subspecies of this parasite settle on apple trees and pears, quince, peaches, apricots and plums. Stone fruit crops, which include cherry, suffer the most. Moniliasis of cherries, in the photo, or gray fruit rot, is now widely distributed in many regions in temperate climates.
In Russia, the infection affects the gardens:
- in the center of the European part;
- in Siberia;
- in the North-West of the country;
- in the Far East;
- in the Caucasus;
- in the Urals.
Cherry gardens in Ukraine and Belarus are infected with monilias. The problem has become almost ubiquitous. The spread of monilial burn of cherries is promoted by cool weather and rains. With an air humidity of 95-100%, the optimal temperature for parasite development is 15-20 ° C.
The prolonged spring, accompanied by precipitation, provokes the appearance of the disease also in those areas where earlier mass manifestations of gray mold were not observed.
How is the infection of plants?
Conidia fungus during flowering through the pistil penetrate the inside of the flower. Soon the mycelium grows. The mycelium affects the pedicel and shoots. As a result, instead of the type of berries that are being filled, the grower watches the rapid drying of the young branches.
Formed ovaries, leaves and shoots acquire a brown or brick-brown color. The berries are mummified and remain on the tree. If the affected parts of the plant are not removed in time, new spores of the fungus appear on them, and the infection is repeated. Even warming and the cessation of rain can not stop the process of dispersal of the parasite. Although the external signs of the disease in this case are lubricated or poorly noticeable, but at the first opportunity, the pathogen of the cherry monolayer already found in the tissue, as in the photo, will manifest itself.
In favorable conditions, for a warm season the fungus parasite gives several generations and captures entire gardens. Winter spores wait on infected branches, dried leaves and untreated berries unseen from trees. Identify their presence can be on grayish-brown spots on the bark, mummified fruits and leaves. With the advent of spring, a new round of infection occurs.
Monilial burn of a cherry is dangerous and that it is easily transferred on closely related cultures, for example, on a sweet cherry, plums, felt cherry, plum, apricot and peaches.
The spread of infection is facilitated not only by the humid weather, but also by insects parasitizing on the flowers and ovaries of the cherry. Not only do they violate the integrity of tissues and weaken fruit trees, pests such as cherry weevils, aphids or fruit flies, transfer the fungus from already diseased parts of the plant to healthy ones.
Along with coccomicosis, monilial burn on stone cultures is considered one of the most destructive diseases. Already in the first year after infection, the horticulturist loses the lion's share of the crop. It should be remembered that the treatment of cherry moniliasis with folk remedies is not carried out.
If you do not take urgent measures, the disease spreads lightning fast over the crowns of closely growing trees and for several years is able to destroy extensive, previously healthy and stably fruiting plantations.
How to cope with the disaster, which is catching up with an increasing number of amateur and industrial farms? Are there any cures for disease and varieties of cherries that are resistant to moniliasis?
How to treat cherry moniliasis?
Since the disease behaves aggressively enough and in recent years has captured all new territories, measures to combat cherry moniliasis must be comprehensive, regular and determined. They include:
- sanitary pruning of affected branches;
- cleaning of fallen leaves from under the trees;
- crown formation;
- treatment of plants with chemicals.
Before treating cherry monilias with copper-containing preparations or systemic fungicides, it is necessary to trim already dried shoots. If the weak branches affected by the fungus, lichens or insects, the branches were not removed in the autumn, they are cut out early in the spring before opening the kidneys. Then the condition of the trees is checked after flowering. The first signs of the lesion are visible after 8-14 days after the wilting flowers. To exclude the spread of the infection down the healthy wood, the spil is held, taking a couple of buds below the drying areas.
Foliage, ovaries and small shoots, fallen under a tree, carefully collected and destroyed. The soil of the root canopy is loosened.
A good preventive measure against the spread of monilial burn of cherries is the regular formation of fruit trees. Removing the branches, the growth of which leads to an excessive density of the crown, the cutting of weak shoots reduces the risk of colonization of the crown by pests and fungi. Especially in need of such pruning and rejuvenation are old, gradually weakening plantings.
All plant residues from sick cherries, including branches, mummified or decayed fruits in summer, as well as foliage, are necessarily burned.
If this is not done, the fungus will easily overwinter and with wind, drops of rain or with the help of insects will continue to spread and destroy plantations.
Pruning and adherence to agrotechnology slows down the development of infection, but only through such control measures can the cherry monilias be defeated. It is much more effective to combine them with complex treatment of the garden with specialized antifungal agents.
Against moniliasis, as well as against other fungal infections on plants, preparations containing copper compounds are traditionally used. They suppress the activity of the parasite and return the plants health.
In addition, modern systemic fungicides, which act against several microorganisms dangerous for fruit crops, are widespread today. Both preventive and therapeutic measures imply several treatments per season.
How to treat moniliasis on cherries that were affected last season? To destroy the causative agent of the moniliose, sprayings are carried out in the spring, before the opening of the kidneys and in the autumn, after the leaf fall is complete, when all the fallen leaves are pruned and destroyed.
With a preventive purpose, spraying is carried out:
- at the green cone stage, that is, before opening the flower buds;
- after flowering, when ovaries are formed;
- a month after the last treatment, if the instruction of the selected preparation allows this.
At the disposal of gardeners today there is a mass of effective fungicides, but it must be remembered that fungi can adapt to one or another composition. Therefore, it is better to change preparations, and together with them to use insecticides in the summer from insect pests that promote spreading of the infection to neighboring trees and fruit bushes.
One of the effective measures to combat cherry moniliasis is the competent selection of varieties for planting.
First of all, you should choose plants that are well adapted to the climatic features of the region. And although breeders could not breed varieties and cherry hybrids that are not at all prone to a dangerous disease, there are varieties that cope better with the plague than others.
Among them, Cherry Anadolskaya and Tamaris, the Belarusian variety Zhivica and Rossoshanskaya black, as well as unpretentious, resistant to moniliasis varieties of cherries for the Moscow region, for example, Turgenevka, Molodezhnaya, Radonezh, Shpanka Bryansk and Bystrinka.
With a competent approach to agricultural technology, preventive treatment and constant attention to the state of planting, even in areas mass infection with moniliozom it is possible to get stably good harvests and not to worry about the health of your beloved culture.
