Apple tree moniliosis: description of the disease, approaches to treatment, prevention

Moniliosis is a serious fungal disease caused by infection. Fruit rot infects apple, pear, and other fruits in the garden, which significantly reduces the amount of the crop obtained at harvest. To rid fruit trees of moniliosis, a long and painstaking struggle is required. Certain preventive measures will help prevent infection of different varieties of apple or pear trees, and effective methods will help fight the fungus in the garden.

Forms of moniliosis

A serious disease of apple fruits manifests itself in two forms: fruit rot and monilial burn.

fruit rot

This form of the disease is quite common throughout Our Country, especially in regions with high humidity. Causes fungal infection of the fruits of apple trees fungus monilia fructigena. The spores of the pathogen pass through the lesions on the skin of the fruit. Spots form on the affected areas, which turn brown, and after a few days, the entire flesh becomes brown and soft.

Monilial burn

This type of disease of apple trees is common in the Far East and the South. The causative agent is the fungus monilinia cinerea. The fungus infects the bark, inflorescences, shoots and foliage of apple trees. If you do not start treating the disease, you can lose more than 80 percent of the apple crop. The disease spreads rapidly to all parts of plants. Monilial burn has an active development, which can lead to the death of the plant.

Stages of development of moniliosis

Moniliosis spreads, gradually affecting the fruits and the trees themselves. The disease goes through two stages of development: conidial and sclerocidal. Moniliosis, which affects petioles, ovaries, inflorescences and foliage, may have a third stage – marsupial. Inflorescences turn brown.

conidial stage

This stage develops during the active fruiting of the apple tree. The spores of the fungus quickly infect the entire tree. They look like brown tubercles that contain conidia. Most fruits of apple varieties begin to hurt under favorable conditions for infection – at high humidity and temperature.

sclerocial stage

The second stage of development of the moniliosis fungus occurs during the dormant period – in autumn and winter. The fungus remains for the winter in the bark of a tree or on fruits that have not been removed from the tree and mummified. Therefore, when a fungus is found on a tree or fruit, it is important to immediately destroy the affected areas. Rotten apples must be removed and destroyed immediately. Moniliosis spreads over several days.

Causes of the disease

Fruit crops are infected with moniliosis through the ingestion of spores on damaged areas of the bark or fruit. The main causes of infection are the following factors:

• No preventive measures are being taken.
• Spores are spread by insect pests that damage trees and fruits.
• Apples affected by the disease will inevitably infect healthy specimens.
• A particular apple variety has poor resistance to fungal infections.

So that the listed factors do not become the reasons for the spread of the fungus on apple trees in the garden, plants should be processed and inspected in time.

Ways of infection of apple trees

Infection with moniliosis is carried out only by mechanical transfer. The spores of the fungus can be transferred with gardening tools during care. Sporulation can be carried out during bad weather – strong winds or heavy rain, as well as at elevated air temperatures.

Signs of moniliosis

Depending on the form of an infectious disease, the following symptoms of infection with the disease are distinguished:

• The appearance on apple trees of brown spots with a diameter of up to 2 mm.
• The pulp of the fruit becomes soft and brown or brown in color.
• The spots that appear gradually increase in size.
• The presence of purulent foci on the fruits of the apple tree, subsequently white blotches form on them.
• Foliage curls, changes color to dark green.

Monilial burn is easy to identify by the following manifestations:

• Drying and falling of the ovaries.
• The branches turn brown and curl.
• The flowers become brown or black.

As soon as the first signs of fruit rot caused by the fructigena fungus become noticeable on the fruits of apples, it is necessary to begin an active fight against the infection.

Tree danger

When infected with moniliosis, fruit rot first appears on the fruit, then turns into a monilial burn. If timely measures are not taken, then you can lose not only the crop, but also the trees. During the life of the fungus in fruit trees, all biological processes are disrupted, which leads to the development of a burn and their premature death.

Treatment of apple moniliosis

Ways to get rid of moniliosis depend on how badly the apple tree is affected. At an early stage of the development of the disease, you can get by with folk methods. If the infection of the apple tree has spread extensively, then only chemical agents will help.

The fight against the disease must begin immediately.

Infection control

Usually, for effectiveness, it is necessary to spray the apple trees in the garden with preparations that destroy the spores of the fungus. It is necessary to process by spraying branches and shoots. The first spraying should be carried out at the stage of inflorescence formation. The second time the treatment with drugs should be carried out immediately after flowering. If necessary, you can spray the apple tree again after 10 to 14 days. It is desirable to alternate fungicides, including preparations from other infectious agents in the treatment.

Pest Eradication

Garden pests not only harm the harvest of stone fruit trees, but also provoke the spread of fungal spores. Codling moth larvae carry the fungus through the skin of the fruit, which contributes to the appearance of fruit rot inside the fruit. Aphids, mites, sawflies and leafworms, moving around the garden, damage the skin of apples, pears and other fruit crops. The infection fungus gets into the wounds, and begins to actively develop on the apple. Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of garden pests as early as possible with the help of special preparations.

Removing damaged parts

Mechanical removal of damaged parts of the tree and spoiled apple fruits will prevent the spread of the disease. Dry and twisted branches should be cut and burned, not left for the winter. When pruning, it is desirable to capture at least 8 cm of healthy tissue. For prevention, annual lime treatment is carried out near the trunk. Periodic visual inspection of trees will allow timely detection of infected places, pruning.

It is necessary to burn the remote parts of the stone fruit culture outside the garden area.

Chemicals

The surest and most effective way to deal with moniliosis is chemical treatment.

The most common are:

• Bordeaux liquid. A broad-spectrum fungicide is used both for getting rid of the fungus and for preventive purposes. Spraying should be carried out at least 6 times with a break of 2 weeks.
• Hom. Systemic topical fungicide is used when leaves appear and after flowering trees. Diluted 40 grams of the drug in 12 liters of water.
• Horus and Skor. Sprayed with a systemic preparation, usually 2 times with a break of 10 days.

To spray fruit trees from the fungus pathogen with chemicals, personal protective equipment should be worn.

Biological agents

It is possible to effectively fight moniliosis with the help of biological products during the periods of flowering, the formation of ovaries and at the initial stage of apple ripening, before harvesting. The most popular biological agents are: pentophage – s, phytosporin, mikosan and alirin. All drugs destroy the structure of the fungal spore, causing its death.

Folk methods

Gardeners use folk recipes only in the early stages of the development of the disease, when there are single lesions of the fructigena fungus on the fruits. For this, copper sulfate is perfect in proportions of 100 grams of the drug per bucket of water. Processing is carried out in the fall after picking apples. You can also prepare a solution of kerosene and laundry soap: 1 liter of water will require 2 liters of kerosene and 50 grams of grated soap. Before use, the solution is diluted with water in a ratio of 1 to 2. During budding, trees can be treated with a solution of colloidal sulfur: 100 liters of water will be required per 10 grams of the drug.

An excellent tool for processing apple trees will be iodine diluted with water.

Treatment depending on the season

Often in the summer season, the fungus does not manifest itself in any way, and the symptoms of the disease appear only by autumn. This can lead to the death of the entire crop. Therefore, inspection and processing of apple trees should begin in early spring.

In the spring

Before the apple tree begins to bloom, it is necessary to inspect it, if a lesion is detected on the fruits or branches, immediately spray it with fungicides. Periodic treatment with chemicals with a break of 10 – 14 days will completely rid the apple tree of the fungus.

Lettom

After flowering, the apple tree needs to be treated with drugs that have indications for this. Before processing a tree, you should carefully read the instructions for the drug. From infection and the spread of the disease, biological means are best suited for this.

Schemes and timing of tree processing

It is necessary to identify symptoms of infection with a fungus in early spring, until spores are formed, or after harvesting. After examining the fruit tree and detecting signs of the presence of a fungus, branches, leaves, and shoots should be treated with fungicides. Spraying with biological products or chemicals should be done every 14 days until the end of the growing season.

Terms of getting rid of the disease

The term for getting rid of the fruit plant from the disease will depend on the degree of damage to the crop and the selected drug. Usually 1 – 2 months is enough to completely cure the apple tree. It is better to treat apple trees in the spring so that the fungus does not remain on the trees for the winter. But, even after defeating the fungus, one should not forget about seasonal preventive measures.

Prevention of diseases of apple trees

Prevention against moniliosis begins with the purchase of seedlings for planting. It is best to give preference to varieties of apples with high immunity to fungal diseases. Apple seedlings should be planted at a distance of at least 3 meters from each other. Annually, the trees should be inspected for the presence of places affected by the fungus, cut off dry and twisted diseased branches. For the full growth of the apple variety, it is necessary to regularly apply mineral fertilizers.

Varieties resistant to moniliosis

When choosing a variety of stone fruit trees for planting in a region with high humidity and temperature, unpredictable weather, it should be remembered that the disease develops well in these conditions. Therefore, varieties resistant to fungal infections should be selected for breeding and cultivation. These species include the following varieties of apple trees:

• Idared.
• Florina.
• Slavic woman.
• Renette.
• Jonathan.

Infectious disease moniliosis develops well in humid weather and elevated air temperature. Getting rid of fruit disease is quite difficult and problematic. Therefore, it is recommended to treat apple trees with preparations for prevention, to destroy garden pests in time. Healthy and strong apple trees will delight gardeners every year with a high yield of fruits for a long time, if you take care of the trees carefully.