I have done a lot of top-working plums over the years and it seems like it finally has caught up with me … I now have several trees which are getting cankers where I had pruned off the previous tree for topworking. I think a big wild cherry in the area that is now getting canker may also be helping to spread the problem.
How are folks dealing with cankers on plums? I have dealt with many cankers on cherries but my plums were good until recently. I usually cut out all the bad-looking wood til the wood is looking good at all the margins, and if it is out of control I then remove the tree. So far I have had to remove only one cherry but it looks like two more cherries will be coming out this winter. On the plums front I have one I cut out the canker on this spring but it doesn’t seem to be recovering, and I have another which looks pretty hard-hit by the base and I’m not sure I can save it. A few others have minor spots.
I was wondering about all the rain in your region the last few years as to how it would promote disease.
We had very wet years of 2016 and 2017 and canker almost wiped out all my stone fruit trees (about 150 trees). I’ve had two years of intense struggle but this year it looks as if I might be getting over the hump. Only got 2 trees left that are problems, both are FS Pluots.
Could anyone identify if this is canker? Maybe it is heat stress. We have been at 91days over 90 degrees where 37 days is our average. Drought conditions also . I watered twice a week with 3 gal. Also Japanese beetles decimated all leaves stopping growth about a month ago. Bareroot 4 n 1 pluot planted in February. Thx for any insight. That yellow you see is hardened sap! 20191008_183039|690x517
Hi @scottfsmith, I’m curious what happened to those canker plum trees? Did you implement any change in your pruning protocol or other orchard cultural practice since being hit by those cankers?
My FG got it pretty bad sometime last summer and DD to a lesser degree, faster than I could react.
I started blowtorching cankers as soon as I saw them and that got my canker problem mostly under control. It was about the time of this post that I figured out the blowtorch method.
