Spray every 10 days during fruit development. STOP spraying a week or so prior to harvesting. Your local extension office or a good nursery can help you further to create a schedule for spraying plum trees and offer advice on products and/or non-chemical options for controlling disease and pests on your plum tree.
What is the best time to spray fruit trees?
The best time to spray fruit trees with a preventative dormant oil is in late winter or early spring. This effort helps to protect trees from overwintering pests, larvae and eggs, which improves success with controlling pests during the growing season.
What is the best fungicide for plum trees?
Effective fungicides include fosetyl-al, which is applied to the leaves every 60 days, and mefenoxam, which can be applied in the early spring and fall. However, the best thing to do is prevent these fungal diseases by not overwatering and choosing a site with well-drained soil.
What is the best month to prune a plum tree?
Prune when the buds are just bursting, or when the tree is just beginning to flower. Established plum trees that are more than three years old can be pruned in summer, from mid-June onwards. Again, the aim is to keep the tree a manageable size and shape, while allowing the fruit to ripen.
How do I get rid of fungus on my plum tree?
Prune out all infected branches in late winter (late February through the end of March) and destroy them by burning, burying, or throwing them away. Remove at least 3-4 inches of healthy tissue below each knot to ensure elimination of the fungus.
How often should fruit trees be sprayed?
Use general purpose fruit tree spray at 1- to 2-week intervals following key plant development observations. Apply the spray first at green tip, followed by pre-bloom, full pink, petal fall, first cover (1 week after petal fall), and second cover (2 weeks after petal fall).
What do you spray on fruit trees in early spring?
I recommend applying a horticultural dormant oil in late winter or early spring. Applying this dormant-season spray protects apple trees, pear trees, pie cherry trees, and grape vines from scale, mealy bugs, aphids, mites, and pear-psylla.
How do you prevent plum tree disease?
Properly selected and timed fungicide applications should be made to protect blossoms, foliage, and fruit throughout the growing season. Plum fruit are very sensitive to brown rot for the first few weeks after setting, so the shuck-split and first cover sprays are very important (refer to Spray Guide below).
What causes plum tree leaves to curl up?
Unlike leaf curl in peaches and nectarines, which is caused by a fungus, leaf curl in plums is caused by an infestation of the leaf curl plum aphid, Brachycaudus helichrysi. This insect sucks tree fluids from plum leaves, causing them to curl.
What causes fungus on plum trees?
Plum tree diseases, such as perennial canker, are spread by a fungus, infesting wood already damaged by insect, mechanical, or winter injuries. Sites with poor drainage encourage the collection of spores in damaged spots on the tree, as do excessive wounds.
Can you cut the top off a plum tree?
A mature tree that hasn’t been pruned needs help to become a good fruit producer, but whacking off the top is not the optimal solution. If pruning old plum trees this way doesn’t kill them, it will assuredly produce unattractive and unproductive new growth.
Should plum trees be pruned every year?
Pruning established plum trees
Prune every year in early spring (April), before bud break. Remove any suckers growing from the rootstock. Rub out any buds growing on the lower trunk. Cut out any dead, damaged or diseased wood, and dispose of it as appropriate, removing it from the garden.
Do plums grow on new or old wood?
But remember, plums fruit on young wood. Avoid removing branches that are less than three years old unless you have to.
What is the black stuff growing on my plum tree?
Black knot of plum, caused by the fungus Dibotryon morbosum, is well-named because of the characteristic black, warty knots it forms on branches of infected trees.
What kills fungus on fruit trees?
Systemic fungicides like Inspire Super, Vangard, Scala, Flint, Sovran, Merivon, Pristine, Luna Sensation, Luna Tranquility, Fontelis, Rubigan, and Rally are highly effective against many tree fruit diseases.
What does a fungus look like on a tree?
Fungus, like most tree diseases, will show itself in one of just a few ways. You may see abnormal growth, discoloration, or wilting in the leaves or needles. You may see discoloration or growth (scabs) in the bark. You may see fungus growing on your tree.
What is best fertilizer for fruit trees?
Fruit trees prefer an organic, high nitrogen fertilizer. Blood meal, soybean meal, composted chicken manure, cottonseed meal, and feather meal are all good, organic nitrogen sources.
Can you spray vinegar on fruit trees?
If you do use apple cider vinegar on your plants, dilute it generously with water. Ideally, you should be using vinegar to spray areas in and around the garden, not directly on your plants. Vinegar is also great for chasing fruit flies away from your fruit trees and plants.
How late can you spray dormant oil on trees?
Dormant oils should be applied in late March or early April before the plants show signs of breaking dormancy (before “bud break”). Dormant oils applied in February or early March are not effective as insects are not actively respiring at this time and, therefore, are not vulnerable to the oil’s suffocating effects.
Why are there worms in my plums?
The main cause of maggot damage in plums, damsons and greengages is due to caterpillars produced by the plum fruit moth. In winter female moths lay eggs in trees. The eggs hatch out into caterpillars which feed on fruit in early summer.
How do you treat fruit trees in the spring?
Fertilization. Your fruit tree should be fertilized twice a year: towards the end of spring, and in early fall. Use an organic-based fertilizer with an N-P-K ratio of 18-8-8. You can also apply a 2 to 5-cm-thick layer of compost at the base of the tree.