If you saw mummified apple trees, pears, cherries on the branches in your garden, then moniliosis is to blame. It is easy to deal with it, but you need to know how. Moniliosis is also called monilial burn and fruit rot. The disease is caused by a fungus that affects mainly pome and stone fruit crops. Moniliosis is quite common in temperate climates, especially in areas where the spring is wet and cold.
Description of the disease
Here are the types of fungi that cause moniliosis in specific crops:
- Monilia cydonia - affects quince;
- Monilia fructigena - parasitizes pome fruits (pear, apple);
- Monilia cinerea - Deals damage to stone fruits (plums, cherries).
Moniliosis enters the plant primarily through the bark. When it blooms, then it becomes more vulnerable to this fungus. After infection, an average of 10 days pass, after which symptoms of moniliosis appear. In this case, the inflorescences darken and die, the leaves turn brown and wither.
If it is rainy and warm weather, then on the back of the leaf, peduncle, petiole you can see the spores of the fungus, they appear in the form of a white rash. Harmful insects and wind can carry these spores to healthy plants. If at this time fruits have already set on them, then brown spots will appear on them, which quickly cover the entire surface of the fruit. Moniliosis will cause the flesh to darken and become soft.
Soon sporodochia form on the fruits - these are small yellowish pads. Fruits infected with moniliosis are mummified, and they may fall off or remain hanging on the branches. Of course, they must be collected and destroyed.
How to deal with moniliosis?
In September, even before the leaves fall, spend a “bath day” in the garden. With a wire brush, you need to carefully clean the trunk, large branches of the tree from dead bark. It is under it that many pests usually winter, which are carriers of various diseases and often bring a lot of trouble to the garden. This must be done carefully so as not to damage the healthy bark. Be sure to lay a film around the trunk, on which the bark will fall, so that later all this will be removed and burned. Collect and dispose of all infected fruit. Cut off dried diseased branches, treat the wounds with copper sulfate, dissolving 150 g of this substance in 5 liters of water. If the wounds are significant, you can cover them with garden varnish.
When the leaves fall off the fruit trees, pick them up with a rake and put them in the compost. To prevent pests from getting out, sprinkle plant residues with a sufficient layer of earth. You can not compost the leaves, but simply burn them, then the spores of the fungus, pests simply will not have a chance to damage the garden next year.
But in any case, keep fighting fruit rot. In early spring, before bud break, cut dry and badly damaged branches. Do not forget to treat the wounds according to all the rules. During the period of bud swelling, trees need to be sprayed with Bordeaux liquid, taking 35 grams of this substance, it is dissolved in 1 liter of water.
The next stage in the fight against moniliosis begins when the buds open. This time, spraying should be done if the plant was sick with fruit rot last year. Take 20 g of the drug "Abiga-peak", dilute it in 5 liters of water and process the plants. Yes flowering trees need to be sprayed with a 3% solution of the drug "Horus", and after 15-20 days, repeat the treatment with these or other recommended means. Their use is also effective after harvesting.
How to use Horus for Moniliosis?
This drug is a fungicide. He is able to defeat not only monilial burn and monilial rot of fruits, but also cope with clasterosporia, coccomycosis, with fruit rot on pears and apple trees, with scab.
1, 5 g of the drug is dissolved in 5 liters of water, trees are treated, spending on one, depending on its size, from 2 to 4 liters of solution. Processing is carried out by spraying. The first should be carried out before flowering, the second time to be processed during the growing season, the best time for this second treatment is half a month after the end of flowering. If you did not have time to do this during this period, then you need to spray no later than 2 weeks before harvesting.
It is important to pay attention to the fact that the drug shows greater efficiency at a temperature of + 3– + 10 ° C, if the air temperature rises above + 22 ° C, spraying is not recommended. "Horus" will help not only protect trees for 7-10 days, but also cope with other diseases of pome and stone fruit.
Moniliosis on grapes
This plant can attack fruit rot caused by the fungus Monilia frustigena Pers. You will find it easily, since the disease leads to decay, wrinkling, drying out of the berries. But at first, moniliosis on grapes is not so easy to determine, because it begins to appear as a small brown spot, but then quickly spreads throughout the fruit. In this case, the spores of the fungus settle on the skin of the berry in the form of light gray dots. The main reason for the appearance of this disease on grapes is mechanical damage to the vine.
The fungus hibernates on fallen infected berries. It develops especially rapidly during the establishment of warm, humid weather, when the grapes are in bloom. If there are fruit trees next to it that are affected by moniliosis, then this is another reason for the appearance of this disease in the vineyard.
Tying branches, digging row spacings, thinning bushes, removing clusters that are affected by moniliosis will help to defeat it. In order for the vineyard to resist this disease, it is necessary to introduce phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, trace elements into the soil, which will help increase the plant's immunity and resist fungal infection.
Take a look at how experienced gardeners are struggling with apricot moniliosis:
