I have four almond trees that I planted a year and a half ago (May 2021). Three are “Guara” cultivar, and one is “Laurenne”. They grew very well in their first season, but this year they have been doing very badly – perhaps due to the drought and heat, though I have been watering them well. They’ve had very few leaves, little new growth, and recently have been loosing leaves though I don’t think it’s time yet. We’ll see if they improve now it’s started raining…
Yesterday, I noticed several spots of a jelly-like substance on the Laurenne. It comes off easily with a fingernail, and the bark underneath is soft and damaged. I assume this is some kind of rot / fungus.
Can anyone identify what it is? Any suggestions as to how to treat it?
Not all jelly like substances are from borers. Some is Gummosis, and yet another can be canker. Borers can create this jelly like substance as well. First of all, google ‘diseases contracted by almond trees’.
Some kind of canker is what I had been assuming, but I haven’t been able to find anything that looks quite like it online. I’ll have to do some more searching. I’m wondering if there’s any way to stop it getting worse…
I hadn’t thought about borers. I haven’t seen any visible damage but I’ll take a closer look when it stops raining…
This article mentions damage as a result of “slower growing, weakened trees which are suddenly spurred into rapid growth by external stimuli, such as wet weather”. That could easily be the case as it’s been a long, very dry summer (though I’ve been watering well, or so I thought) and now we’ve had an abrupt end to that with a week plus of constant rain, and it’s only now I’m seeing this gum on the tree. Hmm…
I guess I should consider treating the damaged areas with some kind of fungicide…
Google up “gummosis”… often shows up in stressed Prunus varieties. Not always caused by borers (but sometimes)… Stressers such as: drough, weed killer uptake, root damage etc… can be causal factors.
