Control Brown Rot in the garden

Brown rot is a fungal disease that mostly occurs on popular stone fruit such as peaches, nectarines, apricots or plums. It is most prevalent during the crucial fruiting season from early spring and into early summer.  If left untreated from year to year, brown rot can weaken the performance of the trees rendering them low yielding and unproductive.

What does Brown Rot look like?

Symptoms of brown rot are mummified fruit that have turned brown and dry and remain hanging on the branches. You will often find mummified fruit that have fallen fruit at the base of the tree. Sometimes the smaller (fruit bearing) branches themselves can become dry and withered.  At this stage, the spores have dispersed and will begin the cycle once again when flowering starts the following winter.

How to control Brown Rot

Brown rot can be difficult to control in areas with high spring rainfall as the spores are primarily spread by wind and moisture. Hygiene in and around susceptible fruit trees are of great importance with all fallen and affected fruit or branches removed and burned. Do not attempt to compost.

Control Brown Rot by spray with Searles Mancozeb Plus.

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