Experienced gardeners know that in the cultivation of fruit trees everything plays a role - and the correct choice of a place for planting and competent care, and the prevention of disease. One of the adversities that can destroy the most luxurious cherry orchard in the shortest possible time is monilioz. What is this illness and how to save cherry from moniliasis? Let's take a closer look in our article.
Symptoms of cherry moniliasis
Moniliosis is a fungal disease affecting fruits and shoots of not only cherries, but also other stone fruit, as well as pome fruit trees. But if, for other crops, the defeat of monilias threatens only the loss of the crop, then for the cherry it is fraught with the death of the tree as a whole. So, how does this disease manifest itself, called still gray rot? The first signs of moniliosis can be seen on cherry in spring, during flowering. At this time, the spores of the fungus-pathogen transported by the wind fall on the pistils of flowers and through them begin their pernicious journey through the tree: first they grow into stems, then they hit the tips of shoots and young leaves. Outwardly it looks as if a tree has suffered from fire - dried flowers and leaves, charred branches. It is for this reason that they speak of a monilial burn. Suffer from moniliosis and cherry fruit, covered with a gray putrefaction. Unlike the usual fruit rot, the plaque for the moniliasis lesion is located on the fruits chaotically, rather than concentric circles. The affected fruits do not fall off, but mummified and can remain on the branches for several years, all the while being a dangerous source of infection for the whole garden.
How to treat cherry moniliasis?
What it is necessary to make a gardener at the first symptoms of the defeat of cherry moniliosis? First of all, with the appearance of the slightest signs of the disease, it is necessary to ruthlessly remove all branches affected by the moniliasis, shoots and inflorescences. Although they look outwardly innocuously enough, but meanwhile they are the source of further spread of the fungus-pathogen. Similarly, it is necessary to carefully clean the branches from all the affected fruits. The slightest negligence in this matter is fraught with the fact that next spring the fungus from the affected cherry will move to other trees.
All cut out branches, fruits, as well as fallen leaves from the affected monilios tree should be carefully collected and burned to prevent the multiplication of the fungus pest.
Prevention is also important in the fight against moniliasis. Among the preventive measures to prevent the expansion of the outbreaks in the garden are the spring whitewash of the trunks and skeletal branches of all the fruit trees in the garden, and their treatment with fungicide solutions, also carried out in the spring. For the first time the garden is sprayed even before flowering with a one-percent Bordeaux liquid , iron or copper vitriol or nitrafen. Repeated treatment is performed immediately after flowering, making sure that the solutions used do not cause burns to the leaves.
Cherry resistant varieties
Unfortunately, varieties of cherries resistant to moniliasis are quite small. On the Internet and print media, one can come across the assertion that cherries and numerous cherry-cherry hybrids are not susceptible to this disease. But, according to reviews of amateur gardeners in various profile forums, this is not so - both cherries and cherries suffer from moniliosis equally often.
- Brunette;
- Chocolate girl ;
- Octave;
- Bulatnikovskaya;
- Gur't'evka;
- Volochayivka;
- Novella;
- Rastorguevskaya;
- In memory of Vavilov;
- Tamaris.