This Black Splendor plum graft was very healthy last year and this year was full of blossoms which is where the dieback started with the tips of each limb. The lower foliage still appears healthy. Should I prune out what has died? Likely cause?
Dennis
Kent wa
Yuck. 
That could be one of the things my Plums,Apricots and bush Cherries get,Brown Rot Blossom Blight.
The dead areas can be removed.I’ve been able to reduce the infection totally on the Cherries and mostly the other Prunus,with Daconil(Chlorothalonil),sprayed before bloom.Even have some Apricot fruit.
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Thanks Brady
I did not spray with a fungicide this year, I will make a reminder for next spring! Can you remember about what time you treated yours?
Dennis
And how many treatments did you apply?
Two,at the most three.I may have mixed a sticker in,because of the rainfall.
I know the fungicide was applied before the flowers opened.There are instructions on the label for it.
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I see that every year. Most of the time it just takes out the flowers and sometimes an inch or two of stick. Never that much. I’m guessing your graft wood was still somewhat weak. It shows up here because I’m a lazy sprayer.
That could be, it’s the first time i have had blossoms attacked in that manner, so I am unfamiliar with What Brady says it could be. When I read the information online it appears to have two stages, the latter rotting the fruit. So I trimmed off all dead materials and have some live and fruitlets left. Maybe if the fruit matures I can see stage two if Brady is correct. Have to wait and see. Since the graft is on a volunteer rootstock similar to Citation it could be there just wasn’t enough energy to supply a vigorous graft.
Dennis
Mine never had the rot on the fruit.Probably because,the conditions need to be somewhat humid and wet,which we don’t usually have here in western Washington,in July and August.
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Good point! Makes sense, will just count on using daconil next spring!
Thanks
Dennis
I’m not on the west coast, so I really don’t know what kind of issue brown rot is there. Here on the east coast it will wipe out your entire crop if not sprayed. And after it shows up it’s there to stay. If others say your only getting a few wiped out flowers your doing pretty good by east coast standards. Here we have to worry about the fruit. One spray should handle the flowers.
Yes any good brown rot fungicide will get rid of that. My stone fruits have gotten three Indar sprays already and there is no shoot blight at all on them. Make sure to look up efficacy on brown rot, some fungicides that work well on many things don’t do so much for brown rot.
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