Sweet cherry is a demanding culture, the health of which begins to take care of from early spring. As soon as the snow melts, gardeners take up sprayers to keep diseases and pests from developing. We will find out how, what and from what you need to process cherries in the spring.
Spring treatment against diseases and pests
It is recommended to spray sweet cherries three times in spring. You need to focus not only on the calendar, but also on weather conditions, the state of the kidneys.
First spraying
The first time the trees are sprayed around the second half of March. The main guidelines for starting work are the absence of snow and a stable temperature at the level of + 5… + 6 ° C. Spraying is carried out until the buds swell.
Before the procedure, cracks in the bark are sealed with garden paste, and the damaged areas are removed.
The main tasks of the first spraying are to prevent infection with fungi and infections, to destroy insects hibernating under the bark.
The crown and soil, previously loosened, are sprayed with the following means:
- Ferrous sulfate solution 3-5%. To prepare it, dilute 300-500 g of powder in a bucket of water.
- Bordeaux mixture or urea solution 5%.
Urea should never be used after bud break - it can burn young leaves.
The first treatment cannot be carried out ahead of time. If the snow has not melted, or it is raining, there is fog, spraying will be ineffective.
Second spraying
The second treatment "along the green cone" is carried out after the buds have swelled and burst, and the leaves have not yet appeared. Spraying dates are in the month of April. But you need to take into account the state of the buds and the weather - in rain and slush, you should not process trees.
The purpose of the second spraying is to combat fungal diseases and pests that are preparing for reproduction. The tree is sprayed with fungicides and insecticides - preparations for pests and insects, respectively.
Preparations for the 2nd treatment:
- Bordeaux liquid 3% - from fungi;
- "Fufanon" or analogues - against cherry moth;
- "Lepidocide" or other biological products - from various pests of sweet cherry.
The treatment solution can be prepared by mixing insecticides and fungicides - this will simplify the agrotechnical task.
Third spraying
To protect cherry flowers from insects and diseases, it is recommended to carry out the third preventive treatment - during budding. Spraying occurs in the month of May, more precise timing depends on the weather, climate and the state of the buds.
Preparations for the third spring treatment:
- vitriol solution;
- preparation "Horus".
If the tree has already bloomed, then the treatments become dangerous for it. Spraying is carried out in case of emergency - in case of massive damage to cherries by insects or diseases. Use only biological or natural products.
After flowering, sweet cherry loses a lot of strength and its immunity weakens. When the tree sheds its petals, it is recommended to feed it with complex preparations.
Products for processing cherries
To combat pests and diseases, cherries use means that are less dangerous for humans and trees. Preference is given to safe drugs and various folk remedies. Chemical poisons are used in exceptional cases.
Chemicals
In the spring, it is necessary to use two groups of preparations for spraying garden trees - fungicides and insecticides. During this period, treatments are of a preventive nature, so the tree is protected from all possible threats.
Popular drugs:
The use of the chemical preparation "Karbofos" requires not only caution, but also serious reasons, since it kills pests and beneficial insects that pollinate trees.
Folk remedies
Gardeners love traditional processing methods for their cheapness and safety. These funds do not require special costs, their use is not associated with a danger to humans and beneficial insects.
The disadvantage of folk remedies is relatively low efficiency. They are usually used for prophylaxis - before the mass destruction of the tree begins.
Popular remedies:
- Tobacco infusion. Pour half a kilo of dry tobacco leaves in a bucket of water and leave to infuse. After two days, boil the infusion and leave for 24 hours. Then mix a liter of infusion with a bucket of water and add 40 g of grated laundry soap.
With the resulting solution, treat the crown of the tree and the soil in the near-trunk circle. You can use dry tobacco dust or wood ash instead of tobacco leaves. - Pepper broth. Pour 100 g of dry hot pepper pods with a liter of boiling water. Cook for 2 hours, and then leave for another 2 hours. After straining the broth, add water to make 10 liters, and spray the crown with the agent.
- Other infusions. A wide variety of herbs and vegetables can be used for spraying. For example, they can be prepared from:
- chopped onion or garlic - 600 g per 10 liters;
- wormwood - 400 g per 10 liters;
- chamomile flowers - 150 g per 10 liters.
In spring, sow flowers and plants with a strong aroma under the cherries - velvets, nasturtium, fennel, dill. In summer, they will scare away "intruders" from the trees.
How to process cherries from diseases?
Among the many diseases that affect fruit trees, there are those that pose the greatest threat to cherries. And it's not only about their danger, but also about their prevalence. Preventive spring spraying can prevent the development of these diseases in time.
Scab
A common fungal disease that affects leaves and fruits. The result of infection is crop loss. When damaged, the leaves are covered with brown-olive spots of a velvety structure. Yellowish circles appear around the spots.
Later, the spores of the fungus move to the fruit, causing them to crack before ripening. The disease appears especially often after heavy rainfall.
How to fight:
- In the spring, before bud break, the peri-stem circles are treated with Nitrofen.
- The second stage is processing with 1% Bordeaux liquid. The first time the cherry is sprayed when the buds begin to bloom, then after flowering.
So that the scab infection does not recur next year, the Bordeaux liquid is treated in the summer, after harvesting the fruits.
Moniliosis
More commonly known as fruit rot, this disease is caused by a fungus. Symptoms - the leaves dry out, the fruits do not ripen and are mummified, softened areas appear on the shoots, the bark cracks. In large trees, the affected and healthy parts can be clearly distinguished.
Branches infected with moniliosis dry out. Some even turn black. Berries, ripening, rot and become covered with a whitish-gray bloom.
How to fight:
- Before the buds swell, spray the cherries with a 3% Bordeaux liquid.
- Before flowering, treat the tree with a 4% solution of "Tsineba". If it was not possible to spray the cherries before flowering, do it at the budding stage. Use 1% Topsin for this purpose. It can also be used for subsequent spraying.
- Immediately after dropping the petals, treat the tree with "Horus".
If the cherry variety is resistant to moniliosis, then more spraying during the season will not be needed.
Brown spot
This fungal disease is also called phyllostictosis. Brown small spots with dark rims and black dots appear on the leaves. With severe damage, the leaves dry out and crumble.
How to fight:
- Spray the tree with 1% copper sulfate until bud break.
- In the “green cone” phase or during the budding period, apply Bordeaux liquid.
- After flowering, re-treat the trees with 1% Bordeaux liquid, and two weeks after flowering, carry out another spraying.
Clasterosporium disease
The second name for this fungal disease is perforated spot. The microorganism infects almost all aerial parts of the plant - buds, leaves, flowers, ovaries, fruits, and even lignified shoots.
The disease is easily recognized by the multiple holes in the leaves. First, small red-brown and crimson spots appear on them, which increase and perforate. The fruits become stained and mummified. The bark of the affected tree cracks and gum flows from it.
How to fight:
- In the spring, before the leaves bloom, spray the cherries with a 3% solution of copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid. Treat not only the crown, but also the trunk of the tree, as well as the soil under it.
- When the cherry has faded, sprinkle it with Sherry, Kaptan, Signum or Topaz, and after a couple of weeks, repeat the treatment with Bordeaux liquid.
Coccomycosis
This is a dangerous fungal disease in which the leaves of a tree first become covered with reddish-brown spots, and then die off. Foliage from diseased trees flies around long before the onset of autumn. The fruits, if they ripen, become covered with brown spots and mummified.
How to fight:
- First, before the buds swell, spray the cherries with copper-containing preparations - Bordeaux liquid or copper sulfate.
- At the “green cone” stage, spray the tree again with copper preparations, or even better - copper oxychloride.
- During the budding period, use more serious drugs - for example, "Topaz", "Horus", etc.
How to treat pests from cherries?
To get a crop, insect control must be started in early spring, long before any visible damage appears. In spring, cherries are sprayed mainly with universal insecticides.
Biological pest control products such as Aktofit and Bitoxibacillin are gaining popularity among gardeners. The composition of biological products contains microbacteria, fungi or viruses aimed at fighting harmful insects.
Cherry moth
This is one of the most dangerous pests of stone fruit trees. If you do not fight the cherry fly, it can destroy 95% of the crop. The fly's body is black, pointed, with an orange shield. The insect reaches 5 mm in length and has transparent wings with transverse dark stripes.
The fly does not eat the fruit itself, it lays its eggs in them. As a result, larvae develop in the fruit, eating the pulp. Affected fruits are not suitable for consumption or processing.
To combat cherry fly, preventive measures are used - in advance, before its appearance, the tree is sprayed with any universal insecticide, for example, "Karbofos".
Spraying procedure:
- Insecticide treatment is carried out immediately after flowering, as soon as the flowers shed their petals.
- The second spraying is required only if the fly is active.
Weevil
It is a small beetle of crimson-brown color with a long trunk. It is often referred to as an elephant or a pipe-wrench. It affects all stone fruit crops, but prefers cherries and cherries more than others.
Beetles crawl out of the soil in early spring when the buds swell. During flowering, they fly out massively. Beetles gnaw buds, leaves, flowers, and later ovaries. If there are many weevils, the leaves do not have time to grow and the tree dies.
In May, females lay eggs in the fruit pulp. White larvae eat the fruits from the inside. Each female lays up to one and a half hundred eggs.
How to fight:
- The fight against weevils begins at the “green cone” stage. The tree and the trunk are sprayed with contact-intestinal insecticides "Aktellik", "BI-58", "Confidor", "Decis", "Calypso" and others.
- The second spraying is carried out immediately after the petals fall. Use any of the effective insecticides.
Slimy sawfly
It is a small insect with transparent wings. The body length of the sawfly fly is 4-5 mm. An adult insect does not feed on cherries; larvae cause direct harm. They are covered with mucus, similar to leeches, and reach a length of 10-11 mm.
The larva lives for 2-3 weeks. During the summer, two generations of the pest have time to develop. The larvae feed on the leaves of cherry, cherry and other fruit trees. The peculiarity of the sawfly larvae is that they stick tightly to the leaves and eat them up to the veins.
To combat the larvae, low-toxic chemical and bacterial insecticides produced on the basis of toxic bacteria are used. The latter are contact-intestinal preparations and provide long-term protection of the tree.
Effective drugs from the sawfly:
- Aktara;
- Inta-Vir;
- "Calypso";
- "Confidor".
Spraying is carried out during the budding period. The interval between treatments is three weeks.
Hawthorn
The pest is a butterfly with white wings and dark veins. She is not dangerous to a tree, her offspring is a pest. The hawthorn caterpillars rapidly devour the leaves, buds and buds of the cherry, causing irreparable harm to it. Hawthorn is especially active in wet weather.
The most effective way to combat caterpillars is preventive spraying with chemicals:
- The first treatment is carried out in early spring, as soon as the snow melts. First, urea is used mixed with vitriol. The solution kills overwintered pests. In 10 liters of water, 0.5 kg of urea, 0.1 kg of copper sulfate are diluted.
- Before and after flowering, cherries are sprayed with insecticides - "Altar", "Akkord", "Inta-Vir".
Cherry aphid
This small insect reaches a length of 3 mm. Coloring - black. Aphids feed on leaf juices. The affected leaves are curled, the shoots are deformed. Several generations are born during the season. The greatest harm is caused by aphids during the fruiting period.
It is necessary to process cherries from aphids several times per season. The first spraying is carried out before bud break. The tree is sprayed with "Fufanon", "Kemifosos", "Karbofos". If necessary, processing is carried out after flowering.
There are a large number of means for spring processing of cherries - chemical, biological, folk. It looks more preferable to use universal drugs with a wide range of lesions.
Author of the publication
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Russia. City Novosibirsk
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