Stone Bone Gum Therapy

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Gum therapy, scientifically called gommosis, is a fairly common non-infectious disease of stone fruits. Cherry plum, sweet cherry, cherry, peach, apricot, plum, etc. can be affected by this ailment. If this disease is detected, systematic treatment will be required, because it can not only significantly weaken the plants, but also lead to their death. It is best, of course, to prevent this attack, if possible, than to treat it later

A few words about the disease

When gommosis is affected on tree trunks and branches, a sticky, like glue, liquid of a brownish-yellow hue begins to stand out through the cracks in the bark. When interacting with air, this glue-like liquid hardens and begins to somewhat resemble colored glass. Bast cells with wood are transformed into vitreous gum. Sometimes, with gommosis, leaves may fall off prematurely.

Basically, gum leakage can be found on heavily weakened trees or in separate damaged areas. Fertilizers in excess amounts (nitrogen-containing in particular) can also provoke gommosis. To a certain extent, growth on acidic soils and in highly waterlogged areas can contribute to it. Often, gum flow also appears after the defeat of trees by clusterosporiosis or moniliosis.

Often, the release of gum can be observed in areas infected with various fungal diseases. During wintering in rather unfavorable conditions, all kinds of damage can also appear (freezing or frost cracks). A sharp drop in temperature after the end of autumn showers also has a very adverse effect on trees - the combination of cold with excessive moisture will definitely not do them any good.

How to fight

In order to prevent the development of gommosis, you should take care of the trees in a timely manner, water them, take the necessary measures against various pests and all kinds of diseases, and also increase their winter hardiness through the balanced and correct use of a variety of dressings. It is also important to know that overloading trees with crops can also significantly reduce their winter hardiness. However, it is necessary to protect trees not only from frost, but also from extremely harmful sunburn. And overly acidic soils must be limed.

After pruning the trees, the wounds should be thoroughly coated with garden varnish. All damage of a solid size is first cleaned, then treated with a solution of copper sulfate, and only then coated with garden varnish. For the treatment of wounds and injuries, a one percent solution of copper sulfate is prepared (10 g per liter of water). It is not bad if there is an appropriate opportunity to rub the wounds with sorrel leaves - this rubbing is carried out three times, each time allowing the treated surface to dry for ten minutes. Next, the aforementioned garden var is applied. Such events will be an excellent protection against the ingress of fungi provoking various diseases.

It is permissible to replace the garden pitch with a putty made from 70% nigrol and 30% carefully sifted furnace ash. And too much damage can even be covered with a mixture of mullein and clay.

During the treatment of gommosis, special attention is paid to cracks and wounds in the trees. The gum, together with the wood, is cut out to living surfaces, then the surfaces are cleaned, and after that the above-described treatment is carried out with coating the wounds. A good method of dealing with gum leakage is also to lightly furrow the bark in those places where the gum is released.

It is possible to fight against fungal diseases of all kinds of stone fruits that provoke gum disease with the use of systemic chemicals. A tool called Horus will help a lot in this, thanks to which it is quite possible to avoid primary infection.