Some of my pluots and apricots are showing curled and deformed leaves. Some of the tips of the branches feel like burnt. Some leaves are also perforated. Is this some sort of disease or herbicide damage? These trees are near the border of our property, close to neighbors.
Your soil appears sandy. The background vegetation — except for what may be succulents — appears desiccated. I’d say you were having dry weather, and your trees were thirsty. Don’t know about the holes. You might eliminate some competition from the grass by clearing a wider area around the trees. Consider irrigation.
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Looks like Oriental fruit moth to me, last year lots of my peaches were afflicted, I cut the tips of as many branches as I can and this year have been religiously following the spray schedule as described by Scott mostly organic though, Surround, Spinosad, neem oil, soap.
Any suggestions for treatment are welcome. Is this really OFM ? or damage by something else and gelatinous ooze. What would be Non-Organic treatment ? and or what has worked for other people.
I’m pretty sure these are not of a danger to the tree, but I really don’t know what it is, and it is the first time I have seen one. Take note of the darker “spur” angled down from just below the fork in the two pictures.
I could perhaps have terorized the creature a bit more to get better pictures, but I’m assuming it is there for bugs, or perhaps birds. It is limber like a leech of some kinds, but quite adept at looking like a twig. Zooming in, I can imagine some sort of legs gripping the branch, but even in person I was not so sure.
It’s hanging out on an unknown persimmon tree that I’m multigrafting to see what sticks. Neither the neighbor nor I have seen it fruit, nor clocked flowers on it. The robins like to stop in it as they survey the lawn. Zone 6B, Northwest North Carolina. Currently hovering in the low 60s (°F) as the highs, but is has already been warmer and is going to be again later in the week. Just came off several days of rain.
Any ideas on the yellow leaves with spots? On a European prune plum (not sure which it is, now that I’m in the house). Transplanted last fall, all three were late to leaf out this Spring, but have seemed in good shape since. It has been very rainy recently. They look better after the last rain, but that may be because the wind knocked off the yellow leaves. The other two plums have a little bit of this, but less. No obvious (bad) insects on the tree; has some lady bugs and and what appears to be parasitic wasps about. Bloomed this year, but the late frost did in all the flowers.
that’s a peppered moth caterpillar. they eat leaves, not sure if they’re really that voracious though or worth killing. the adults and caterpillars can change color to match trees in the area.
https://askabiologist.asu.edu/peppered-moths-game/peppered-moth.html
The above caterpillar is certainly a spanworm, or geometer, a larva of the geometrid moths.
The Peppered Moth is a geometrid.
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@resonanteye @LarryGene A former neighbor caught the inchworm connection and knew they turned into moths.As the few I’ve knowingly seen were all green, a bit more obviously caterpillars, and more active about “inching”, it never even entered my mind. We have several geometrids around here. The white and black varieties are the more common, but there are a few grey or variegated. Whether the black or white is most prevalent changes from year to year. They seem to favor immolation once they have wings. This one was a master at his mime game. I would have missed him if I wasn’t grafting or he wasn’t around eye-level.
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Check on the undersides of leaves for insects
This is what happens when you get lazy and careless. Almost all of my apes are like this. The few clean apples I do have have been bagged. Harrow sweet and Korean giant pears have been spared but most of my other pears did not set any fruit. Stone fruit was toasted by frost. Small harvest for me this year.
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That is sad. It should inspire those of us to the north to be diligent so we don’t end up the same.
David,
I’ve noticed bite marks of PC and holes of coddling moths. Look like they all attacked your fruit.
May try a high pressure water hose if that’s handy ?
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washed it off, are these mites?
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Aphids
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What is the extent of the aphid infestation? How tall are the plum trees?
Are there a hundred affected leaves, or are there thousands?
If the infestation is small and low, I would pinch off all affected leaves and then
spray water or other substance if needed.
You can experiment with a blast of water and see if that is effective.
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it was the tips of two branches, the end leaves. a few dozen. about waist high. the tree is only another foot higher than that. I sprayed them off, cut those tips back and will hope for the best- I’ve got “fruit tree spray” I could use or sevin but I hate to put anything on when the bees are around in the garden. there’s ladybugs on a neighboring tree but none on this one for some reason
