DISEASE AMONG FRUIT.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18158, 24 October 1930, Page 3

DISEASE AMONG FRUIT.

MASTERTON TREES INFECTED. HARD TO ERADICATE. Fruit trees in Masterton orchards this season are being badly attacked by a fungus disease, commonly known as “ bladder-plum.” The leaves, flowers, shoots, and finally the fruits of the trees, are affected by this disease, which is most noticeable on the fruits about three weeks after blossoming. These become greatly enlarged, and after a time fall io the ground! The enlarged fruits are somewhat globose, eventually becoming greatly elongated t and more or less curved and twisted, i They are spongy in texture, and when cut are seen to be quite hollow, the stone and the ovule not being developed. They change in colour from green to ■ white, at first somewhat smoothly, then they soon become wrinkled. Finally they turn brown and die. The organism overwinters by means of hibernating mycelium jn the shoots or by spores lodging in budscales and bark crevices. The disease is only partially • controlled by spraying, so this treatment should be supplemented by cutting out infected branches. The following spray programme is recommended by the Department of Agriculture:—(l) When buds begin to swell, lime sulphur, 110, or Bord|iux mixture 8-6-40; (2) when buds are standing out in cluster, lime-sulphur 1-35, but not open;, (3) as the last blossoms are falling, lime-sulphur 1-125; (4) subsequent applications, lime-sulphur 1-125 at intervals of 18 to 21 days throughout the growing season; (5) when leaves are falling, Bordeaux mixture, 8-6-40.