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Ruud Kleinpaste: Diseases in the garden

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Sat, 26 Sep 2020, 12:09PM
Photo / Supplied
Photo / Supplied

Ruud Kleinpaste: Diseases in the garden

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Sat, 26 Sep 2020, 12:09PM

Diseases in the garden 

Maybe now’s a good time to chat about diseases and disorders in the garden. Coming out of winter, some plants have had a bit of a struggle, but the warmer temperatures will stimulate rapid growth. Rapid growth often makes plants more vulnerable to infections. 

Stuff I’ve seen and heard-of recently; some are tricky: 

* Apricots (stone-fruit) with Bacterial Blast. This appears as a “blowtorch” effect on leaves, and gumming on the stem. Copper sprays can assist, but in a younger tree if you’ve cut it back, the best solution is a new tree.  But keep up the copper sprays, especially in winter, and also protect pruning cuts. 

PRUNING can transmit spores from one plant to the next! Clean secateurs and sterilise them between plants – COVID-LOGIC. 

* Silverleaf is a real bummer too; often on things like stonefruit and ornamental cherries. Fruiting bodies appear in cool, wet conditions which is why it’s best to prune on warm, dry days in summer. Often trees need to be taken out; Tricho-dowels are little dowels with a parasitic fungus in it, which need to be inserted into the vascular system, to fight the silverleaf. Others need to be prevented by using copper of sulphur sprays. 
 
Mildews
 (especially powdery mildews) will come up in late spring summer. Many different species and most of them will be controlled by regular sulphur applications, or better still: copper+Sulphur sprays such at Nature’s Way Fungus spray; but start NOW. 
 
BlackSpot
 on things such as rose leaves also have a hard time when you do preventative spraying: organic stuff (as mentioned before) or use Myclobutanil (Fungus Fighter or Super Shield, etc) as a systemic fungicide that will enter the plant and give longer protection. Thiram is another (old-fashioned) fungicide that used to work on Apple Black Spot and bulb sterilisation. 
 
Hygiene
 is important to reduce fungal infection: remove fallen leaves (don’t compost them), give plants some exposure to winds, so they dry quicker after a rain-shower and clean your garden tools a bit more frequently! 

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