SILVER LEAF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1938, Page 3

SILVER LEAF

PREVALENT AMONG FRUIT TREES. Reports show that there is a good deal of silver leaf disease among plums, peaches and nectarines. The characteristic silvery sheen which the diseased foliage takes on is in marked contrast to the deep green of the leaves on healthy branches. There is no cure for silver leaf, other than cutting out and burning every fungus infected branch and shoot. Two important facts to bear in mind about this disease, suggest safety measures that every grower should adopt. The first is, that the disease can spread only from dead wood, 'that is, from a branch or stem that has died of the disease. This is so, because the fungus only produces spores from the dead wood. Obviously then, care should be taken to cut out and burn, every scrap of dead and dying wood in any tree on the place. Secondly, the disease can only attack healthy trees through some wound or crack -in the bark. This means that every wound or bark abrasion should be sealed over at once with a protective coating of paint, to prevent the disease gaining a hold.