Why do pears crack on branches. Why do pear fruits rot on trees

Aphids appeared on the pear, against which no treatments were carried out. When the fruits appeared, they began to crack. Why is this happening?

In the summer, I found aphids on a pear, which I did not treat against. Insects literally stuck around the top of a young tree. It bloomed well, fruits appeared. However, the entire crop turned out to be unfit for consumption (photo taken in September). How to save a pear?

Aphids are sucking insects and, in large concentrations, cause significant damage to plants, sucking juices from leaves and shoots, which dry out as a result. Trees become depressed, their winter hardiness and productivity decrease. Aphids should not be allowed to spread, attract useful entomophages to the garden - insects that destroy this pest. However, in this case, aphids are not directly related to fruit damage.

The photo shows a typical physiological cracking of pear fruits, which is observed in stressful situations. Most often, this problem occurs when, after a dry period, rains begin or excessive watering of dry soil is carried out. At the same time, the somewhat dehydrated internal tissues of the fruit (pulp) are quickly saturated with moisture, and the outer shell (skin), which does not have time to “catch up” with their increasing mass, cracks.

Putrefactive microorganisms penetrate the cracks, they quickly

They develop in a nutrient medium and contribute to the decay of the fruit on the tree. In two or three weeks, they are completely affected by the disease and become spore carriers themselves. A bulging grayish coating on rotten pears is a harmful spore.

Rotten fruits fall off or remain hanging on the tree in a mummified form, acquiring a black and blue shiny color. Such "rotten" tightly dry to the branches and become a source of disease in the next season, so they should not be left on the tree. All damaged fruits must be removed (if they are high in the crown, you can use a fruit picker or knock down with a pole), collect and dispose of.

In autumn, during the period of leaf fall of trees, in order to suppress the infection, autumn spraying is carried out with an 8-10% solution of ammonium nitrate or a 5-7% solution of urea. The often recommended use of copper-containing preparations (Bordeaux liquid, copper sulphate, and others) is best transferred to early spring (before bud break). In autumn, this event is ineffective in rainy weather, moreover, it can cause a burn of young shoots that have not yet passed pre-winter hardening.

Reduces physiological cracking of fruits and uniform soil moisture. If watering is not possible, you should try to keep spring moisture reserves longer - mulch the soil under the entire crown, and not just near the trunk.

Maintaining a healthy garden is the diligence of a person, multiplied by knowledge. A living tree is just as susceptible to disease as we are. Only a person can complain, go to the doctor, and the orchard will silently wait for help. The signal of the weakening of vitality will be the decay of the fruit, the breeding of insects and the condition of the bark. An attentive gardener will determine why the apples on the apple tree are cracking by the first signs and will not allow a deep defeat.

How to get a good harvest

The result of spring, summer garden work should be a decent harvest of apples. If the garden bloomed profusely, well pollinated, then the task of the gardener is to preserve the ovary. The fall of the ovaries in the first period is the self-regulation of the tree. It will not be able to bear all the fruits. According to scientists, only 5% of the flowers turn into an autumn apple harvest. Otherwise, the harvest will break the branches with its weight and weaken the tree itself.

Why healthy apples fall

The tree needs help, to supply it with food, to prevent diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to observe agricultural technology. It lies in the proper nutrition of the tree and its protection. If at the beginning of spring and during the first two months of summer the tree is regularly fertilized with organic and mineral nitrogen fertilizers every two weeks, the fruits will be filled, and the question of why apples fall from the apple tree in the first period never arises.

A healthy apple tree bears as many fruits as it has enough nutrition obtained as a result of top dressing, moisture from watering and light energy.

In the future, a poured apple will need to create the very taste that a green young apple does not have. Therefore, from the first days of August, the composition of dressings changes. Now the tree needs a lot of potassium and. These substances serve as nutrition for the tree in the autumn, increasing its winter hardiness. They also contribute to the assimilation of the biological form of substances and the creation of amino acids, enzymes that make the apple rosy, tasty, fragrant. Feeding the tree, we expect from it a large harvest of delicious juicy apples.

Of great importance is the watering of the apple tree during fruiting. Not getting enough moisture, for the sake of self-preservation, the tree draws liquid from the fruit, which can shrivel and fall off. Therefore, a regular garden during fruiting is required. But the roots need oxygen, and if it rains for weeks, the soil is oversaturated with moisture, dumping apples is also possible. Under these conditions, aeration of the soil is required, its saturation with air with the help of deep loosening of the near-stem circle. It is not difficult to carry out these activities, and the question of why the fruits of apple trees fall off will never disturb a caring summer resident.

Diseases that lead to a decrease in yield

Any disease of the fruit tree leads to crop loss at all stages. Every disease contributes. Diseases and pests often work in close cooperation. Therefore, it is important to maintain a garden in compliance with the map of agrotechnical measures within the recommended time frame.

Why do apples rot on an apple tree and is it possible to defeat the disease? This fruit rot or moniliosis struck the fruit. The disease is fungal, multiplies by spores, winters in the mycelium in the ground and on plant debris. Unharvested rotten fruits left in the fall in the garden represent a great danger. The next year there will be a new infection from overwintered residues. The gardener is required to thoroughly clean and disinfect the garden after harvest is complete.

Apple moniliosis spreads:

  • in humid warm weather;
  • colonizes on damaged fruits;
  • changes to healthy fruits when touched.

In order for the rot not to take away most of the crop, it is required to carry out fungicidal treatments of the garden in two weeks, wetting each branch. Systemic drugs approved for use in subsidiary farms are Skor, Topaz, Fundazol, Hom. They also act on other diseases associated with spoilage of apples, for example, scab, a harbinger of moniliosis. Therefore, when treated with fungicides at the same time. Any copper-based preparations will become effective, but their use during fruiting is undesirable. Copper preparations are used in the spring.

Develops, starting with the formation of apples the size of a walnut. It was then that at the first molt, the caterpillar of the codling moth makes a hole in the peel of the apple and the spore penetrates deep into the fruit, which grows into the mycelium and destroys the apple. First, brown spots appear, then a gray coating that looks like mold. These are new disputes, ready to be introduced. If there is contact with another fruit, then infection will occur and rot will go on.

This can happen on a tree before harvesting or when storing fruits in winter conditions. Some varieties, especially winter and sour ones, are slightly susceptible to rot, as they have a thick peel and a dense waxy layer that protects the fruit from infection.

Fruit rot is the result of previous damage to the skin by a pest, hail, or the predisposition of the variety, due to the thin skin, to infection through contact.

The fight against pests that damage fruits and are precursors to the appearance of moniliosis remains an integral part of agrotechnical measures. All kinds of traps and spraying apple trees from pests in the summer is a prerequisite for maintaining a healthy garden. Therefore, measures to combat the codling moth simultaneously serve to protect the health of the fetus.

When asked why apples crack on an apple tree, an answer was received, which once again confirmed that the manifestation of any disease lies in complex causes. Cracking of the apple is possible if its nutritional supply continues and the skin is not elastic enough. Scab is known to act on parts of the plant so that they stop growing. Incoming nutrients break the peel, and cracking of the fruit occurs.

But there are physiological reasons. After a long drought came heavy rains. The roots drove the juices in large quantities, and already hardened skin could not resist the internal pressure. Why apples cracked on an apple tree that does not get sick is clear in this case. It was necessary to organize watering in a drought and cover the root circle with mulch so that a sharp change in humidity does not happen.

The tendency to crack is greater in fruits with rough skins. In addition, you can not keep a crop of ripe fruits on a tree for a long time. They can also crack and rot.

Conclusion

In order not to be left without an apple harvest, it is required to carry out the following measures to preserve the garden throughout the season.

  1. Autumn collection of all plant residues and their destruction by burning. Carry out cleaning of the bark, treatment and whitewashing of trees with special paint. Dig up the trunk circles.
  2. In the spring, repairs should be made to the crown and trunks of trees before the start of sap flow. Spray with a strong urea solution. Treat the green cone with copper-containing preparations for fungal diseases.
  3. After the flowering of the garden, carry out protective treatments every two weeks, combining treatments against fungal diseases and against insects. Do not forget to feed and water the plants on time.

How to get a big harvest of apples - video

Pear: why do fruits crack?

Nina Efimova

candidate of agricultural Sci., fruit grower, breeder, author of pear varieties/

Aphids appeared on the pear, against which no treatments were carried out. When the fruits appeared, they began to crack. Why is this happening?

In the summer, I found aphids on a pear, which I did not treat against. Insects literally stuck around the top of a young tree. It bloomed well, fruits appeared. However, the entire crop turned out to be unfit for consumption (photo taken in September). How to save a pear?

Aphids are sucking insects and, in large concentrations, cause significant damage to plants, sucking juices from leaves and shoots, which dry out as a result. Trees become depressed, their winter hardiness and productivity decrease. Aphids should not be allowed to spread, attract useful entomophages to the garden - insects that destroy this pest. However, in this case, aphids are not directly related to fruit damage.

The photo shows a typical physiological cracking of pear fruits, which is observed in stressful situations. Most often, this problem occurs when, after a dry period, rains begin or excessive watering of dry soil is carried out. At the same time, the somewhat dehydrated internal tissues of the fruit (pulp) are quickly saturated with moisture, and the outer shell (skin), which does not have time to “catch up” with their increasing mass, cracks.

Putrefactive microorganisms penetrate the cracks, they quickly

develop in a nutrient medium and contribute to the decay of the fruit on the tree. In two or three weeks, they are completely affected by the disease and become spore carriers themselves. A bulging grayish coating on rotten pears is a harmful spore.

Rotten fruits fall off or remain hanging on the tree in a mummified form, acquiring a black and blue shiny color. Such "rotten" tightly dry to the branches and become a source of disease in the next season, so they should not be left on the tree. All damaged fruits must be removed (if they are high in the crown, you can use a fruit picker or knock down with a pole), collect and dispose of.

In autumn, during the period of leaf fall of trees, in order to suppress the infection, autumn spraying is carried out with an 8-10% solution of ammonium nitrate or a 5-7% solution of urea. The often recommended use of copper-containing preparations (Bordeaux liquid, copper sulphate, and others) is best transferred to early spring (before bud break). In autumn, this event is ineffective in rainy weather, moreover, it can cause a burn of young shoots that have not yet passed pre-winter hardening.

Reduces physiological cracking of fruits and uniform soil moisture. If watering is not possible, you should try to keep spring moisture reserves longer - mulch the soil under the entire crown, and not just near the trunk.

The main reasons why pear fruits begin to rot include: infection with infectious diseases, hail that injured the fruit, codling moth damage, excess or lack of moisture, improper care, scab or moniliosis. Depending on the cause, the method of treating a diseased tree is chosen. This problem applies not only to pears, but also to apples and cherries. Therefore, it is important to know what to do in such a situation and how to prevent lower yields due to rot.

Reasons why pears start to rot

Consider the main causes of rotting pear fruits and how to deal with them.

Scab on fruits: brown spots on fruits

Signs of damage may also be present on leaves, flowers, fruits, shoots. Small round spots may form, which darken over time and affect other parts of the culture.

What to do: control measures

For the treatment of pears from scab, spraying with copper sulfate and lime is used - this event will have to be repeated several times a year. Good results are obtained by treating the pear with Bordeaux liquid or colloidal sulfur, copper oxychloride, copper sulphate. In advanced cases, treatments are carried out 5 times per season:

  1. When the buds formed and swelled- spraying with copper sulfate.
  2. When buds form- it is recommended to use the fungicide "Skor".
  3. After the end of flowering- you can use "Speed" again.
  4. In half a month.
  5. At the end of summer.

Alternate the drugs that you use to treat scab trees, as addiction develops to them.

Mollinosis, or fruit rot, when fruits begin to darken

Mollinosis is a fungus that enters the inside of the fruit through damage to the peel. Also, the cause of infection can be direct contact of a healthy pear with a sick one. The causative agent normally tolerates winter cold, therefore, in the fall. Mollinosis is carried along with insect spores and wind. The pathogen loves heat and high humidity, so it is most often found on pears with heavily thickened crowns. Infected fruits usually fall off in strong winds, but they can also hold securely on the stalk, drying out over time (that is, they become mummified). In appearance - pears begin to darken, and then rot appears.

In the presence of wind, such fruits fall off, but sometimes remain on the branches and dry out.

How to get rid

You need to start taking care of the future harvest in the spring - as the snow melts, inspect the tree and the area around it for branches, foliage, fallen fruits, remove all unnecessary and be sure to burn it. Last year's fruits, if they remain on the trees, are removed and burned, as they may contain fungal spores.

The first treatment for rot is carried out during active swelling of the kidneys with copper-containing preparations - they provide quite effective protection against mollinosis. Do the second after the end of flowering, several treatments are allowed during fruiting. The latter is recommended to be carried out after the end of the harvest, paying special attention to the trunk, the near-stem circle, and the crown. Use organic fungicides.

Why a pear may not bear fruit, read on.

old trees

Often the fruits of old pears rot right on the branches. The rotting process begins at the tail when the fruit hangs on the tree. By the time of full ripening, the pear will have a rotten core at least half.

How to deal with rotten pulp

There is only one way to get rid of fruit rotting on old pears - by replacing the old culture with a new one, and preferably a varietal one, not a wild one.

You can also collect green fruits and lay them out on a canvas for ripening or prepare compotes, jams. So the pears simply do not have time to rot from the inside.

codling moth

Pear codling moth is perhaps the most active pest. It feeds on the pulp of fruits, infecting them with caterpillars.

The codling moth especially loves early varieties of trees. Destroying the pulp and seeds, the larva disrupts the metabolism inside the fruit, and it falls from the tree.

How to get rid

It is necessary to deal with codling moths comprehensively, especially actively taking measures during the growing season. Main activities:

  1. Collection of garbage, leaves with their subsequent burning.
  2. Autumn plowing of soil between rows with stone fruits.
  3. Loosening the soil with the destruction of found cocoons.
  4. Using light sources as traps (butterflies fly into the light and fall into a trap - containers with a solution of soap and kerosene).
  5. Traps with whey or apple syrup (they are hung on branches).
  6. Formation of tapes on the trunks for catching larvae (ribbons are made of rags, cardboard, solid oil, non-drying glue is used to create a sticky layer).

Do not leave fallen pears lying on the ground, because the larvae come out of them and penetrate the soil, spreading through the garden.

weevils

Fruit weevils are small bugs that damage buds, buds, flowers, pistils, stamens, petals, less often young shoots and leaves.

In the middle of summer, the pest makes small narrow pits in the fruits and ovaries, which look like injection marks - females lay eggs in them. The larvae develop in the fruit for about a month.

How to get rid

An effective remedy for weevil is spraying with field chamomile infusion. To prepare it, take 150 g of flowers per bucket of water, insist for a day, filter, add soap and spray the trees. Pine, spruce, garlic, onion decoctions are also suitable. Their preparation involves a two-week fermentation (otherwise the efficiency will drop).

They spray pears with a decoction of tomato tops - take a kilogram of tops on a bucket of water, boil for an hour, add a little soap, use for spraying. Another good natural remedy is bitter wormwood at the rate of 400 g of dry grass per bucket of water.

Prevention

Pears need careful care and attention throughout the season, but special care should be taken in the spring:

  • - it is necessary to cut all dried shoots at the end of winter, until the buds swell. You can trim broken, dead branches, leaving on a healthy part. Remove all last year's leaves, and also remove those that remain on the branches, burn them.
  • Do the same with mummified fruits, as they are potentially harmful to the new crop.
  • Thin out the crown- so the trees will dry out faster after rains, heavy and sprinkling.
  • If the harvests are too plentiful, you need to leave only large fruits.
  • Remove the pears from the tree carefully, so as not to damage either the crop or the branches themselves. Each fruit should be carefully inspected before being sent to storage.
  • Timely carry out treatments with organic fungicides. As the buds swell, the trees are treated with Bordeaux liquid. Work also with the trunk area, which can be affected by pests, fungi. Repeat the procedure several times until the fruits ripen.

You can read about how a pear is pollinated correctly in.

An unthickened crown leaves practically no chance for mollinosis, so trim and trim in a timely manner.

here .

It can often be observed that the peel of apples and pears crack, forming wide and deep cracks.

Causes of peel cracking can be very different and often cannot be precisely determined. Anything that makes the skin of apples and pears inelastic can cause it to become stressed by fruit growth and crack.

Scab often plays a major role in fruit cracking. In places affected by the fungus, the peel dies off, stops growing, turns cork and breaks with the growth of other parts of the fruit. Therefore, you need to pay the most attention.

How to deal with fruit cracking

The most favorable conditions for growth and productivity with uniform soil moisture throughout the growing season. Strong changes cause physiological disturbances. If, for example, a long dry period is suddenly replaced by rain, this can lead to increased pressure in the tissues and the formation of cracks.

Good contributes to the alignment of its moisture content. Therefore, we can recommend mulching tree trunks with mowed grass or compost. Under such a cover, soil moisture fluctuates much less than when it is kept under black fallow or under sodding.

In years with contrasting weather conditions, you can often see the skin of apples in cracks.

Not all varieties are equally prone to cracking:

  • It is known that the fruits of such varieties as, for example, "Cox Orange", "Boscope", "Ingrid Maria" and "Holsteiner Cox" crack very easily under unsuitable climatic conditions.
  • Fruits with a rough surface are more prone to cracking than those with a smooth surface.
  • early varieties often have very large cracks in the skin and flesh.
  • In valleys and depressions, fruits mostly have a less smooth surface than on slopes. Because the skin of rusty-mesh fruits is inelastic, cracked fruits are common in these locations.

If, under the conditions described above, it was a question of large gaps and cracks, then very small (1-2 mm) cracks can also occur during the period of fruit growth. Fruits on trees that are not sufficiently provided with food are most often prone to this.

If there are cracks in the peel of apples and pears, it is easy for fungi to penetrate the pulp of the fruit and cause rotting. Spraying cannot prevent the possibility of such a subsequent penetration of the infection into the fetus.