Sunken, dead and often oozing areas of bark will become apparent from spring and early summer, and shoots may die back. Bacterial canker affects plums, cherries and other trees in the Prunus family. It’s harder for the trees to resist the disease in winter, so again summer pruning is the safer option. Bacterial Canker in Plum Treesīacterial canker is another serious disease that affects plums and other trees of the same plant family ( Prunus).

Branches infected with silver leaf will have a tell-tale dark stain at the centre. Cut through a branch for a certain diagnosis. They are a whitish colour, with a wooly surface and purplish-brown underside.Įnvironmental stress can cause a similar silvering, but it’s likely to affect the whole tree, not just selected branches as with silver leaf. In summer the leaves of infected plums take on a silvery sheen (although the leaves themselves are not infectious), then once the wood dies the bracket-shaped fungi appear, ready to produce more spores. Silver leaf disease is spread by spores from a bracket fungus. In autumn and winter, spores of Chondrostereum purpureum may infect trees through wounds, so it’s important to avoid pruning at this time. Silver leaf disease can affect other fruits such as apples and cherries, as well as some other trees and shrubs, but it is most usually associated with plums. These issues are heartbreaking when they occur, but the good news is they can usually be avoided by carefully performing one simple annual maintenance task: summer pruning. Silver leaf and bacterial canker can weaken or even kill plum trees. There are also two serious diseases to be aware of. Cropping so prolifically can also cause branches to become so weighty that they actually snap under the strain. They often tend towards what’s known as biennial or alternate bearing, where trees produce a bumper crop one year, only to take the following year off.

Plum trees may produce generous harvests of some of the most mouth-wateringly juicy fruits, but they’re not without their problems.

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