Popcorn Disease and Silk Hope

General Fruit Growing
1

Anyone else experiencing severe popcorn disease on Silk Hope?

I had about 5% of the fruit affected last year and did not pay much attention as there were too many fruits anyway. This year it is more like 50%. The recommendation is to remove any fallen fruit with symptoms so that the fungus does not stick around/proliferate. With the many fruit it has not been practical for me to remove them all. Does it get worse in future years? It has been an above average rainfall spring this year and not sure if it contributes to the issue?

I also have a couple of Gerardi mulberry trees and those so far do not seem to have been affected.

Popcorn
Popcorn1920×867 314 KB

3 Likes
2

On my Illinois everbearing it gets worse every year. My tree is about 80% popcorn. I’ve noticed that better sun exposure areas of the tree have less popcorn. Silk hope is supposed to be resistant. Is it possible you might have Illinois everbearing instead?

3 Likes
3

A few weeks back LuckyP said this about his Silk Hope
…

I did find a few PD-afflicted fruits on my Silk Hope tree last year, so it’s not immune… time will tell whether it is resistant, or it just took a while for the fungus to find it.

…

My silk hope is in year 2 now… i have not seen PD on it yet… but so far it has been a shy bearer… still establishing. Hopefully next year more and better fruit.

3 Likes
4

So,I guess the fungus,can’t be controlled with fungicides?

1 Like
5

That was my first though too since I have read that IE does have this susceptibility. I doubt there is an easy way to identify IE from SH.

6

This is pretty distressing news, as I’ve been counting on Silk Hope being resistant.

My oldest Silk Hope is on its 4th leaf and is making plenty of fruit. So far, no sign of popcorn disease here in 8A Georgia, but time will tell. It is certainly hot and humid here.

I’m sort of hoping that something like this turns out to be the case. I’ve wanted to plant IE for a long time, but always held off due to fear of popcorn disease.

3 Likes
7

I’ve got silk hope in its 8th year with no popcorn disease yet in 8A Alabama.

5 Likes
8

It’s pruned to a bush form and makes a lot of incredibly good tasting berries. During the peak couple of weeks I can pick about 1 lb per day

2 Likes
9

SH has smaller berries than IE. IE fruit is pretty good size. Popcorn is not permanent. I had it one year then haven’t seen it since.

3 Likes
10

@Robert Can you tell from the image below if it is SH or IE? The tree is growing vigorously in ground in full sun. Its about 5yrs old. Fruits are fat this year due to a lot of rain.

SilkHopeQ
SilkHopeQ1920×1019 480 KB

1 Like
11

Hard to be 100%, but I’d say SH. I had both IE and SH for a while till the SH died. Usually the SH are thinner and shorter. Taste wise you probably couldn’t tell the difference.

1 Like
12

Thank you! Forget to mention that I picked the biggest ones for the picture. Most are somewhat shorter.