Until the middle of the last century, the unpretentious cherry, growing in gardens throughout the former USSR, had practically no serious enemies. And old, proven varieties regularly delighted rural residents with, if not the largest and sweetest, but numerous berries. But since the 60s, in a number of regions, cherry trees increasingly stood almost without foliage by mid-summer, and they bore fewer and fewer berries. This is how coccomycosis, brought from the north of Europe, manifested itself. Three decades later, Russian gardeners became acquainted with another formidable enemy of stone fruit crops - moniliosis. Today, these diseases are the main, but not the only enemies of cherry orchards in Russia. Trees and their crops are threatened by scab, holey spot, gum disease and other misfortunes.
Coccomycosis: description of cherry disease with photographs
The greatest damage to the crop is caused by fungal diseases of cherries. One of the most dangerous and insidious is coccomycosis. The spread of the disease is facilitated by long humid periods when the air is heated to 20–24 °C. Such conditions allow the infectious agent, the fungus Coccomyces hiemalis, to develop, multiply and infect plants unhindered.
The disease appears in the summer, and its characteristic signs are primarily noticeable on the foliage:
- Round brownish or reddish spots form on the front side of the leaf blades.
- Gradually they grow, the tissues in the middle dry out, and areas with a pinkish coating appear on the back of the leaf.
- Foliage affected by coccomycosis dies and falls off in the second half of summer, leaving the branches almost naked.
Judging only by external signs, coccomycosis could be considered a disease of cherry leaves. But this opinion is wrong! Due to the early loss of the green part of the crown, cherry trees are weakened and unprepared for wintering. As a result, some of the shoots die by spring, and damage is found on the trunk and skeletal branches.
Already in the first year after infection, cherries reduce yield, and the quality of pilaf decreases. If you don’t urgently fight the disease, the cherry tree, as in the photo, will die in the next few years.
Premature leaf fall in the middle of summer should seriously alert the gardener. All fallen leaves must be collected and destroyed, and the plants are treated with Bordeaux mixture, iron sulfate solution or systemic fungicides. Repeated treatment is carried out according to the instructions after 7–14 days after the first one.
The main measures to combat cherry fungal disease are aimed at destroying the pathogen and preventing its spread to healthy trees.
As a preventive measure in the risk zone, as well as in humid weather that promotes the spread of coccomycosis, spraying of cherries is carried out in the spring, even before the flower buds open, and at the end of mass flowering of plants.
At the same time, you need to remember about the possible toxicity of sprayed products. The fruits remaining on the branches are removed, hands and respiratory organs are protected with gloves and a respirator. For the drugs to be as effective as possible, they must be applied to dry foliage and act unhindered for 2–3 hours. Therefore, for processing it is better to choose a windless, fine morning or evening, when there is no danger of sunburn.
Causes
There may be several reasons for buds not blooming on cherries:
- For young trees planted the previous year, this is most likely an incorrect planting;
- Excess or deficiency of moisture. In the first case, many shoots are formed and they do not have time to ripen. If there is a lack of water, a weakened tree will most likely freeze in severe frosts;
- The cause of cherries dying may be improper pruning or specific stone fruit diseases. That is, the trees were sick in the spring and summer, but the gardener did not pay attention to this or did not properly process the garden;
- Most of all, of course, the damage to plantings is caused by too low temperatures in winter (30–35 degrees) over a fairly long period;
- Shoots develop poorly if the branches are frozen with ice and air does not reach the buds for a long time;
- In summer, young cherries in the southern regions stop growing due to drought And if it starts to rain in the middle or end of summer, the plant begins to develop, but the shoots do not have time to ripen before the winter frosts.
We will consider in more detail the reasons for cherries not budding below.
Violation of cultivation rules
This point applies mainly to young seedlings of all varieties, such as Fairy, Vocation and other cherries. When planting them in the fall or spring, certain mistakes were made or mistakes were made during care and cultivation, which include the following points:
- The cherry planting site was chosen incorrectly. The tree was planted in a lowland, where groundwater comes close to the surface, and cherries do not like this;
- The site was located in an open area with prevailing northerly winds;
- The planting hole was shallow, and the root collar rose high above the ground. Or, on the contrary, she was too buried;
- No fertilizer was previously applied to the pit;
- After planting, the tree trunk circle was not mulched;
- The central conductor and side branches were not trimmed.
Watering
It is necessary to water trees in the south, but if there is insufficient rainfall, then also in more northern regions of the country. Fruiting cherries are watered 2-3 times per season, usually in the first half of summer. The soil must not be allowed to dry out. Garden irrigation mode:
- The first time a week after flowering;
- The second time about a month after the first watering;
- Third time after leaf fall.
Be sure to cover the furrows with loose soil after watering.
Trimming
Pruning Ural Rubinovaya, Malyshka and other varieties of cherries differs from other tree species. Therefore, improper shortening of shoots can lead to freezing of the buds. In addition, groups of cherry varieties influence tree pruning:
- Fruiting on long annual shoots (Lyubskaya, Vladimirskaya and others);
- Fruiting both on shoots and on bouquet branches (Shpanka, Podbelskaya);
Therefore, these features should be taken into account. In the first case, only shortening is carried out, and in the second, shortening and thinning are performed. Moreover, they cut off part of the branch that is more than 60 cm long. It is not recommended to touch the rest.
The crown is thinned out less than that of pome trees. If branches are severely cut, they suffer from gum disease, get sunburn, and in the spring the buds on such branches may not awaken.
Freezing of roots, crown and trunk
The cherry plant is frost-resistant, but can only withstand short-term drops in temperature. And if the daily amplitude fluctuates too much, for example, from 2 degrees to 20 degrees below zero, then the trunk and roots begin to freeze. To make sure that freezing is the cause of unopened buds on trees, you can make cuts on the branches and roots and look at the color of the cambium.
A tree that has not been damaged by frost has a light brown bark, while a damaged tree has dark brown bark. In the first case, the kidneys will awaken, but in the second, perhaps not. Therefore, it is possible to develop a new tree from dormant buds on the trunk. In any case, this will serve as a lesson to the gardener and next year the work to prepare the tree for the winter period will be carried out carefully and on time. And where plants often freeze slightly, it is necessary to plant early-ripening and frost-resistant varieties.
The condition of cherries is also negatively affected by spring frosts with temperatures dropping to -2 degrees. This natural phenomenon has become common not only for the central regions of the country, but also for the southern ones, when cold air masses from the Arctic arrive at the beginning of bud break. This material will tell you about grafting currants onto cherries.
Cherry moniliosis: photo of the disease and the fight against it
Moniliosis or monilial burn is already well known to gardeners in central Russia, Kuban, Black Earth Region, southern regions of Siberia and the Urals. In some areas, almost all cherry plantings are infected with a harmful fungus, but in addition, the fungal disease of cherries caused by Monilia cinerea is also dangerous for other fruit crops.
The primary infection of a tree occurs during flowering, when fungal spores penetrate and grow through the pistil and peduncle deep into the wood tissue. However, noticing cherry disease in the spring, gardeners often mistake its symptoms for the consequences of freezing or unsuccessful chemical treatment.
Indeed, the branches, flowers and young leaves drying out under the influence of the spreading fungus seem to be scorched. And moniliosis lesions from the outside look like large solid spots in the crowns of recently completely healthy trees.
Secondary infection occurs through fruits in which fungal spores ripen. From the outside, the berries look dry, mummified, often covered with a grayish coating. They adhere tightly to the branches and, if not removed, persist until spring, becoming a new source of infection.
Infection is promoted by wet spring-summer weather, irregular pruning of the crown and violations of agricultural practices. If the prevention of cherry disease and its treatment is not given due attention, the trees wither and die within a few years.
To minimize the number of foci of infection, be sure to:
- fallen leaves are removed, and the soil under the trees is carefully loosened;
- cut, capturing part of the healthy wood, and destroy branches affected by moniliosis;
- remove and burn the remaining fruits.
In the spring, before the buds open, cherry plantings are sprayed with Bordeaux mixture or other contact fungicide. Repeated treatment is carried out in the second half of flowering. Particular attention is paid to plants that have already been attacked by a harmful fungus in the past. If cherry disease is noticed in spring on previously healthy trees, you will have to resort to the help of systemic fungicides, for example, Skor, Topaz or Fundazol.
How does moniliosis develop?
Monilial burn can develop in two forms.
1. After a warm winter, in the spring, with the onset of rainy and cool weather during flowering, the symptoms of the disease resemble the effects of frost or fire, which is why this form of the disease is called “monilial burn.” Flowers, leaves, shoots and branches are affected.
2. The second form is fruit (gray) rot. First of all, fruits become infected through damage resulting from mechanical stress or caused by insects. Small dark spots appear on mature fruits, which quickly grow and cover most of the fruit, and sometimes the entire fruit.
Later, similar sporulation pads form on the affected fruits. They are located in a random order, which distinguishes moniliosis fruit rot from fruit rot, in which sporulation is arranged in concentric circles. Diseased fruits shrink and dry out, mummifying.
Moniliosis rot of cherry fruits
Cherry clasterosporiasis and treatment of the disease
Hole spotting is in third place in terms of destructive influence. Clusterosporiasis is also a fungal disease of cherry and affects not only foliage and shoots, but also flowers. The disease first manifests itself by the appearance of brownish-brown spots. As they grow, the tissues inside dry out and crumble, leaving large round holes. The diseased foliage dries and falls off, the affected berries also do not fill and dry out.
Spores of a harmful fungus overwinter:
- in the soil;
- on the remaining mummified fruits;
- inside cracks in the bark;
- on plant residues.
In addition to regular cleaning and destruction of fallen leaves and pruning of the crown, to prevent and treat cherry diseases and the soil around them in the spring, they are sprayed with a solution of copper sulfate or Horus.
Developing according to the description, as in the photograph, cherry disease requires urgent action. In this case, complex action fungicides or Bordeaux mixture are used. Full-scale processing is carried out in several stages, starting from the green cone stage and ending in the summer days when harvest is just over 20 days away.
Similar measures are taken when signs of brown spot and rust are detected on fruit trees. In both cases, the gardener is faced with the appearance of brown, reddish-brown or red spots on the leaves and ovaries, which are a manifestation of the activity of harmful fungi. All of these diseases negatively affect the yield and consumer properties of fruits and weaken the plants. Therefore, at the slightest delay, the garden will need to not only fight cherry diseases, but also pests, for which the affected plants become desirable and easy prey.
Hole spot
This disease of cherry trees is also called clasterosporia. It is a rather complex fungal infection, as it can affect all tree structures at once.
Reasons for appearance
The cause of perforated spotting is a fungus. Its spread is facilitated by a moderately warm period of summer weather, with temperatures ranging from +19 to +26 °C, as well as high air humidity.
The main source of spread of the fungus is wood. There, this pathogenic microorganism can overwinter and wait for warm weather to find a new home. Hole spot is spread by insects, wind and rain.
Signs
The symptoms of this cherry tree disease are serious:
Treatment
Measures to treat the tree are quite radical. It is necessary to trim and burn all affected areas. The cherries are sprayed with a 3% solution of Bordeaux mixture. For processing you will need 100 ml. liquid per 10 liters of water. All signs of vegetation around the trunk are destroyed and the soil is dug up.
Cherry scab: description of the disease and its treatment
Most often, scab, also caused by fungi, occurs on apple and pear trees, but in garden plots it can also affect stone fruit crops. If, as in the photo, a disease is detected on a cherry, the fight against it should be carried out as seriously as with moniliosis or brown spot.
Dark scab spots with a cracking center grow not only on foliage. They capture the filling berries and sharply reduce the quality of the harvest, making the fruits practically unsuitable for food and processing.
A good measure to prevent and combat cherry fungal disease is:
- collection and destruction of fallen leaves;
- timely formation and sanitary pruning of the crown;
- digging up the soil under the trees;
- spraying plants and tree trunks with a solution of fungicide, copper oxychloride or Bordeaux mixture.
As in other cases, the treatment is carried out in several stages in accordance with the instructions for the product chosen by the gardener.
Gommoz: description of cherry disease with photographs
Drops of gum appearing on the trunk and branches of the cherry tree are also a disease. Gommosis or gum bleeding can be caused by several reasons:
- sunburn;
- exposure to frost;
- improper use of fertilizers;
- mechanical damage to the cortex left without proper attention.
At first glance, a phenomenon that is not dangerous to the life of a plant is actually a harbinger of the most unpleasant consequences. In an area where the cambium is damaged, the correct development of wood is hampered or stopped, but access is completely open to harmful fungi, other causative agents of cherry diseases and pests.
In this case, it is equally important to prevent the appearance of new cracks, as well as to heal existing ones as quickly and effectively as possible. In order to prevent gum development, after sanitary pruning and crown formation, it is necessary to treat with garden varnish. The resulting damage is pre-irrigated with a 1% solution of copper sulfate.
General measures to protect cherries from diseases and pests
Unfortunately, fungal and related infections are so common today that it is no longer possible to achieve a good harvest by relying only on varietal characteristics and normal care. Preventive and therapeutic use of fungicides in garden plots is the norm. But even the most effective means have their weaknesses. The fungus is already able to adapt to a previously effective drug in the second or third year. Therefore, chemicals have to be changed regularly, not forgetting about compliance with agricultural technology and basic attention to planting.
In addition to spraying with fungicides, cherry trees need:
- in sanitary pruning of the crown carried out in spring;
- in regular rejuvenation of fruit-bearing trees to wood level for 3–4 years;
- in cleaning fallen leaves and removing even inedible, dry fruits remaining on the branches;
- in proper fertilizer and mandatory watering of the garden.
If diseases that are dangerous for stone fruit crops are widespread in the region, it is better for the gardener to take care of selecting zoned resistant varieties and hybrids already at the stage of planting a garden. See photos of apple tree diseases!
Popular varieties for the Moscow region
The Moscow region is characterized by unstable weather conditions: sudden temperature changes, dry or rainy summers, harsh winters and recurrent frosts. Therefore, important criteria for choosing a variety will be:
- Winter hardiness and frost resistance (up to - 35-38 ° C).
- Immunity to coccomycosis and moniliosis.
- Self-fertility - bearing fruit without pollinating trees of another variety. Saves space in the garden.
- Timing of flowering and harvest ripening.
Apukhtinskaya cherry fruit
The varieties most adapted to the conditions of the Moscow region are:
- Lyubskaya (Lyubka) is a bush-like variety of folk selection that replaced the Vladimir cherry. Characterized by self-fertility. Reaches a height of up to 2.5-2.8 meters, the wide spreading crown does not require frequent pruning. It is characterized by high yield (up to 50 kg per mature tree) and early fruiting. With proper care, the first berries are obtained 2-3 years after planting. Collection dates are late July-early August. Reaches maximum yield in 8-10 years of development. The productive life of a tree is 16-18 years. The most significant disadvantage of Lyubskaya is considered to be low winter hardiness, the sour taste of red cherries and poor resistance to viral diseases (requires constant treatment with fungicides).
- Zhukovskaya is a variety of common cherry, zoned in the regions of central Russia in 1947. The most tangible advantage is high resistance to coccomycosis and good yield (up to 35 kg per tree) of large dark red heart-shaped fruits. The height of an adult tree can vary from 1.5 to 3 meters, and its lifespan is up to 20 years. Good fruit production continues until 16-18 years. Frost resistance is average. The plant is self-sterile and needs pollinators.
- Molodezhnaya - bred in 1993 with the participation of the Vladimirskaya and Lyubskaya varieties. It can appear in the form of a low tree (up to 2.5 meters) or a tree-like spreading bush. The berries are juicy, red, sweet with a slight sour taste. Ripen in the second half of July. Fruiting begins at 4-5 years, 10-15 kg annually. The variety is self-fertile, drought-resistant, winter hardiness and resistance to coccomycosis and moniliosis are average.
- Turgenevka is included in the register of breeding achievements of the Russian Federation (1979). The variety was created by careful selection of Zhukovskaya cherry seedlings from open pollination. The medium-sized (3-3.5 meters) tree has a not too thick crown of an inverted pyramidal shape. Fruit production begins 4-5 years after planting, up to 25 kg of large (up to 5 grams) burgundy berries from an adult tree. The variety is partially self-fertile; rich harvests can be achieved when combined with other cherry varieties. It is characterized by high winter hardiness and mediocre resistance to fungal diseases of cherry trees.
- Apukhtinskaya - obtained by selecting seedlings from the Lotovaya variety in the village of Apukhtino. This small tree, up to 2.5 meters, is distinguished by early fruiting. The first berries are produced in the 2nd year of growth. The variety is late-ripening, self-fertile. Flowering occurs in mid-June, berries ripen at the end of August. Burgundy cherries with a tart bitterness are used for processing. Productivity up to 10 kg per plant. The variety is frost-resistant. High resistance to coccomycosis and other fungal diseases of fruit trees is noted.
- Shokoladnitsa - zoned in the Central region of the Russian Federation in 1996, obtained from crossing the Shirpotreb black and Lyubskaya varieties. A tree of medium height, up to 2.5 meters with a compact reverse pyramidal crown. The taste of the berries is very sweet, the yield is high (up to 12 kg per planting). Flowering in the first ten days of May, ripening of cherries in the first ten days of July. The variety is somfertile, drought and cold resistant. Susceptible to fungal diseases above average.
All of the listed varieties produce high yields subject to proper care, including pruning, watering, fertilizing, and preventive treatments with insecticides and fungicides.
