Treatments Of Apricot Diseases

Introduction

The Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) tree is quite small in statue, but with a large expansive canopy. The leaves are oval with a pointed tip, and the flowers are white to pink in colour. The fruit is smooth, smallish in size and yellow to orange, often tinged red in colour. The Apricot tree and its produce can be inflected with a range of different diseases. These Apricot diseases each have different causes, symptoms and treatment plans, and in this article we will explore some of these. 

History

Apricot Bacterial canker and blast is caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae. This bacterial infection thrives in high moisture and low temperatures conditions thus making for a common occurrence in the season of spring. Young trees (2-8 years) are more susceptible to this variant of apricot diseases, and places in an orchard that are low, gravelly, or sandy will likewise be more a risk. Symptoms that accompany this apricot diseases manifestation include limb dieback, rough cankers, amber colored gum, leaf spot and blast of immature flowers and shoots, and the inner bark will be brown, fermented, and sour smelling. An important practice that growers should carry out is to maintain the trees vigor though lighter irrigation with drip or micro-sprinklers and improved tree nutrition. By doing this you will help reduce the incidence of this disease. Spraying your trees with a copper compound in the fall months also seems to help reduce the manifestation of bacterial canker.

Crown gall is another type of bacterial Apricot diseases. This variant is caused by the pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens and enters the tree via wounds for example grafting and budding scars.This Apricot diseases symptoms are as follows rough, abnormal galls on roots or trunk that are soft and spongy in texture, stunted growth in younger trees, secondary wood rots in older trees and small, red or yellow leaves. Galls are typically a few inches across in size, new galls will be light, tan-colored whilst older ones will be darker and almost black in its color. The best method of control for this type of apricot diseases is to remove the infected from the orchard to prohibit spreading of Crown Gall. To prevent the disease form manifesting in the first place make sure that you Sterilize the grafting and budding tools before using them on your tree and paint the wounds of tree fruits and nuts with Gallex has helped reduce the incidence of crown gall.

 

Features

Brown rot (Monilinia fructicola) is a fungal disease that affects stone fruits, including apricots. This type of apricot diseases will first manifest symptoms in spring when the blossoms open, with the flowers wilting and turning brown and are overrun with multitudes of brownish-gray spores. The infection will then spread to the twigs with cankers manifesting, these cankers will be small in size with tan centres with dark margins. The next zone that will be infected is the fruit of the tree. These will be in the form of soft brown spots that develops into the whole fruit rotting, drying and shrinking. It will have a shrivelled appearance. This type of Apricot diseases can spread with ease either via spores, rainfall or by insects. If your tree has contracted this disease then you must take measures to prevent the spread of it. A chief feature of this is to ensure that the environment is clean; this can be done by removing the diseased fruit from the region and deposed of in a appropriate manner. Additional measures are to prune out all cankers, and to remove overripe fruit promptly. Also fungicide should be applied to trees that are affected with these apricot diseases.

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