How To Recognize Mulberry Diseases?

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

Mulberry can be found on our sites not so often. And it's a pity - these berries bring a lot of benefits to the human body. However, those who grow mulberries in their gardens periodically encounter various ailments that affect this valuable crop. So that this or that disease does not become an unpleasant surprise, it does not hurt to have an idea of how their main manifestations look on mulberry

Gray leaf spot

The surface of bright mulberry leaves begins to become covered with rounded dark gray specks, framed by rather wide rims of chestnut-brownish shades. And after a while, the formation of destructive pycnidia begins on the upper sides of the spots.

Gray spotting occurs on mulberries quite often, causing quite serious harm to it and significantly impairing the nutritional value of this crop.

Powdery mildew

Mulberry leaves, attacked by this scourge, gradually become covered with a whitish powdery bloom, which, after some time, disappears from the lower sides of the leaf blades. To a large extent, the development of the ill-fated ailment is favored by an insufficient amount of moisture and thickening of the plantings.

White rot of branches

A whitish coating of mushroom mycelium begins to appear just under the bark of infected mulberry twigs. A little later, the bark of young shoots begins to noticeably swell, turn dark and dry out. Also, quite often the bark cracks, and almost always it peels off without much difficulty. Gradually, the infected areas begin to become covered with black sclerotia of irregular shape, the size of which can range from 0.5 to 3 cm. White rot provokes the rapid death of young twigs, which in turn negatively affects the production of leaf mass for silkworms bred on the site.

White mixed stem rot

As a rule, trees are infected with this disease through spores through dead branches. Fungal mycelium begins to slowly penetrate into healthy parts of trees, leading to their rapid decay, which develops mainly in the core of the trunks. It should be noted that the process of decay when affected by this disease is very active. In the last stage of development of white mixed rot, infected wood is painted in whitish shades, and between the annual layers, numerous clusters of mycelium, painted in light brown tones, can be seen. It is possible to identify damaged trees by the fruit bodies attached to the middle or to the lower parts of the trunks.

Brown spot

On the leaves of a mulberry tree, you can see numerous reddish and purple spots. Sometimes characteristic holes appear in the lesions, and the leaves themselves begin to turn yellow quickly.

White peripheral root rot

In the wood of trees attacked by a harmful fungus, sapwood white rot is formed, which is delimited from the layers located deeper and did not have time to become infected with well-visible black lines. Fruit bodies begin to appear near the bases of the trunks of drying trees, and under the bark, upon close examination, you can see rhizomorphs that look like black or white strings.

Bacteriosis

This infection equally attacks shoots and mulberry leaves. On the leaves of the plant, watery pale specks, differing in an irregular shape, begin to appear. And after some time, these spots turn brown or become blackish-brown. Infected leaves quickly curl up and fall off.

As for the mulberry shoots, the lesions on them look like dark elongated specks that form characteristic wounds on the trees, penetrating the wood to the very core and tightening with an unpleasant gum-like mass of black color. Shoots attacked by a malicious scourge are bent and gradually dry out.