Diseases and pests abound, and every gardener inevitably faces the challenge of treating fruit trees. These treatments are carried out both in spring and fall; otherwise, getting rid of these pests is impossible. At the end of summer, it's always helpful to seek advice from those with practical experience.
Autumn preparation
Gardeners and vegetable growers have plenty to do in the pre-winter season, but fruit trees require special attention to ensure a bountiful harvest next year. The question of what to treat a garden or individual trees with isn't just a matter of age and species.
It's important to remember that there are numerous potential diseases and pests. This means that before resorting to pesticides, fungicides, and folk remedies, you need to tidy up the area and treat the plants.
You may be interested in:The thoroughness and diversity of measures taken in the fall determines the scope of spring and summer activities. The lower the likelihood of pests surviving and diseases appearing on fruit trees, the less effort will be required in the spring.
In the fall, between harvesting and the first frost, after the trees have completely shed their leaves, it is essential to:
- remove all weeds (dry and still green), collect fallen leaves and take them outside the area;
- cut off dry branches and collect all the twigs that are on the ground;
- burn it all on neutral territory so as not to damage viable branches with smoke and fire;
- Dig up the area to get rid of insects that usually overwinter in the soil (if this is not possible due to the large area, you need to dig at least around each tree and bush);
- carefully prepare the trees - experienced gardeners clear away old bark, moss and lichens as potential wintering places for garden aggressors, where they can overwinter and become active in warm weather;
- If the tree has any damage, it is covered with garden pitch, which will allow it to recover and gain strength during the dormant period;
- After treatment, the trunks should be covered with a protective layer that will prevent insects from using the trees as a winter shelter.
Spraying your garden is a long-standing and proven method of protecting plants from potential fungal diseases, viruses, and harmful insects. But before deciding on the treatment, it's important to thoroughly prepare your plants.
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Why is garden cleaning necessary?
Inexperienced gardeners often rely on their own ideas (they consider them successful discoveries or borrow them from unprofessional publications on the World Wide Web). One such common misconception is the ability to mulch with fallen leaves and garden debris.
This creates the temptation to skip some steps and simply rake up fallen and rotted leaves around the trunks of heat-loving plants and protect them from freezing due to the rotting processes that inevitably occur in them.
Mulching is indeed an effective method, but using dry leaves, as suggested by internet sources, can create favorable conditions for mice, which readily gnaw on bark (treatments against diseases and pests have virtually no effect on them).
Preventing the appearance of fungi, viruses, and insects—beetles, butterflies, and ticks—in the fall involves more than just spraying. This can be ineffective if you don't remove fertile soil for their reproduction from the garden or tree area:
- Digging up the soil allows you to destroy those aggressors that overwinter in its upper layer, burrowing underground;
- cleaning and burning leaves, loose bark, and branches - to prevent potential shelter for larvae and other forms created by nature for wintering;
- Insecticides and fungicides – guaranteed to treat fruit trees and shrubs against insects;
- Mulching insulates the roots of plants and retains moisture in the soil, which will be needed later;
- Tying up and whitewashing the trunks will solve the pressing problem of rodents, which in some regions is becoming a real disaster for gardeners.
You may be interested in:Insecticides and fungicides
Insecticides are necessary if the garden suffered from an insect infestation during the summer and there is a risk of a resurgence. In summer, contact insecticides (killing upon contact with the pests), fumigants (acting through the respiratory system), and stomach insecticides (killing through the digestive system) are used.
Systemic agents that directly affect the plant being attacked are avoided for reasons of environmental friendliness of the resulting crop; however, without them, it is difficult to get rid of fungal and viral diseases.
In the fall, you can use a group of biological agents developed by microbiologists and virologists from inactivated microbial strains or fungal spores. When searching for treatments for fruit trees and shrubs, you can also consider fungicides.
Inorganic fertilizers are more widely known and are often used in the fall to treat fruit trees. Some, such as ferrous sulfate, serve more than just disease and pest prevention. They contain iron compounds, which are vital for pome fruits (apples, quince, and pears) and stone fruits (plums, cherries, sour cherries, apricots, and peaches), helping them resist various diseases.
Sometimes, simply treating shrubs and fruit trees with fungicides isn't enough. It's necessary to mitigate the potential hazards already present during the upcoming warmer months.
Fungicide spraying is done both in spring and fall, but applying the solution to the soil during tillage is recommended in the fall. This ensures it will target insects already sheltered for the winter and prevent contamination of the following year's fruit.
Fruit trees can be treated:
- Alirinom-B is a preparation with excellent compatibility with other products and is effective for all plants;
- Gliocladin is an effective biofungicide against fungal pathogens in the soil;
- Fitosporin-M – against numerous diseases of pome fruits and other plants.
These are the most popular formulations among gardeners. They are biological and offer additional benefits. Those with years of experience in the garden prefer inorganic or folk remedies. The latter are less effective but cost mere pennies.
You may be interested in:Spraying with inorganic solutions
The most popular is a 3% solution of Bordeaux mixture. It was invented in the 19th century, but is still used in most cases. It is a mixture of slaked lime and copper sulfate (copper sulfate). The amount needed for treating the garden must be carefully calculated. Copper sulfate can also be used as a single agent, without the addition of slaked lime.
Urea, better known as carbamide, is a type of granular nitrogen fertilizer. When it enters the soil, it converts into ammonium carbonate. Fall spraying of plants has been shown to be effective in controlling pests, but excessive amounts can lead to nitrogen overload, which is just as undesirable for plants as nitrogen deficiency.
Ferrous sulfate works similarly to copper sulfate, but it delivers additional iron to plants. Gardeners use it to activate oxidative processes in plants while simultaneously suppressing insect activity.
Experience shows that inorganic fungicides are more effective when combined with insecticides. The appropriate product is selected based on the most common problems, low toxicity, and compatibility with the organic or inorganic product from a wide range of fungicidal products.
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Igor Mikhailovich
The title is "How to treat trees in the fall...", but the actual topic of the article is only 1/5th of the time. The rest is fluff, irrelevant. There's so much empty talk on the internet.
Larisa
If you have young apple trees or other fruit trees on your property, be sure to add birch tar to your garden whitewash. This will repel mice. Don't use lime.