Every stone fruit shares brown rot, and it overwinters on the tree
Every stone fruit shares brown rot, and it overwinters on the tree. Strip the mummies and prune the cankers before bud break, and keep fallen fruit picked up.
Promising A person has checked it against its sources. If you skip this, it still grows, just less well. The planner suggests it.
How it works
Monilinia fructicola overwinters in mummified fruit left on the tree or the ground and in twig cankers; at bloom its spores blow and splash to blossoms, and infected fruit sheds spores that spread to other fruit on the same tree and to neighboring trees, wild Prunus included.
What to do about it
Before bud break, remove every shriveled fruit still on the tree and cut out cankered twigs. Pick up fallen fruit through the summer, thin so fruit do not touch, and prune for air. Remove wild or volunteer Prunus nearby.
The evidence
Evidence: checked against 3 sources in the research-based literature.
The 3 sources
Brown rot is caused by the fungus Monilinia fructicola. It affects peaches, apricots, nectarines, plums, and cherries
Brown rot fungi overwinter in shriveled fruit, infected twigs and branches
Brown rot is a destructive fungal disease of trees and shrubs in the genus Prunus, which includes peaches, plum, cherries, apricots and nectarines
Plants it applies to · 5
How this rule has changed
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- Wording made clearer
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Milpa Gardens. “Every stone fruit shares brown rot, and it overwinters on the tree. Strip the mummies and prune the cankers before bud break, and keep fallen fruit picked up.” Evidence grade: Promising. https://milpa.garden/rules/stone-fruit-shares-brown-rot-overwinters-tree/
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- The rule names its mechanism and is settled, by sources a person has read and checked or by plain arithmetic and geometry.
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- The mechanism is named and the literature backs it. A few questions are still open.
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