I have a small orchard of about 50 fruit trees, mostly hardly local and heritage varieties. I am in the Castilla Leon region of northern Spain. This year many of my young pear, apple, plum and cherry trees have produced unusual spindly unhealthy looking leaves. I cannot find any pests on the trees. The locals say they have not seen anything like it before. I have attached a picture as an example. Is anyone able to help me identify what the problem is? Many thanks.
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Thanks for your reply. I don’t use any chemicals at all. However, the neighbouring farmer sprays his land with herbicides and it has occurred to me that this may be the reason.
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It’s my belief your trees were damaged with glysophate or similar chemical eg 24d , dicamba. Take a look at these almonds https://thealmonddoctor.com/glyphosate-damage-on-almond/
This will be helpful Herbicide injury on garden plants | UMN Extension
Or An Overview of Dicamba and 2,4-D Drift Issues | Herbicide-Drift Risk Management for Specialty Crops or Reducing 2,4-D and Dicamba Drift Risk to Fruits, Vegetables and Landscape Plants | Ohioline
I’m not sure how this damage to your orchard is handled in your part of the world but typically compensation is given by the person who oversprayed your crop. Photos , and plant leaves and other items can be gathered for proof if necessary. This is not the first or last time we have saw this. @thecityman was oversprayed in a similar manner
My very strange pears
@grantmarais welcome to the community we look forward to many more posts
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I hope @thecityman will stop by to chime in. His orchard is next to a farm that sprayed glyphosate. The spray drifted, killed and damaged many of his trees.
They did it to him twice!!!
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Thank you. The articles in the links you sent are very interesting and informative. My trees look exactly like the photos of the affected almond trees. My fears have been confirmed and now it becomes clear why I couldn’t find an answer in any resources on tree pests and diseases. The EU has banned the use of glyphosphate from the end of 2022. A shame it hasn’t been sooner. Hopefully some of my trees will survive. Thank you again for your very useful answers.
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Your welcome! We are hopeful your orchard will recover and that you are properly compensated.
On windy days the spray drift can certainly affect neighbors…sometimes hundreds of feet from the field being sprayed.
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I’m pretty certain they have been sprayed with herbicide. It may not kill them but will set them back.
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Looks like you have already figured this out, but yes, that is certainly spray drift, but I’d bet it was 2,4-D and not Glyphosphate. As others have said, I’ve been hit twice in my orchard. First time was much worse- killed about 14 trees and permanently damaged a couple more, and temporarily damaged about 10 but they ended up ok. Its too soon to know if those trees got a fatal dose or not- time will tell. I have no idea how things work in your part of the world, but I must say that I was quite impressed with how serious our government took what happened to me. THey did a major investigation involving lab tests and interviews and once the determined for sure who did it they fined them and made them take some educational classes. If I had reported them the second time it would have been extremely serious punishment including the loss of the right to spray anything for 1-3 years.
Sorry this happened to you. There is a fair chance that your trees will come out of it ok. Good luck!
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I’ll second 2,4-d
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I think that the cereal and forage farmers of Castilla y Leon are well aware of the effects of herbicides on trees. But it is not their priorities to respect a small private garden, since to fumigate there is legislation that prohibits, among other things, doing it with wind. And this attitude exists because the corresponding authorities will not lift a finger for an individual who does not live from agriculture and who perhaps is not from the area. But it must be denounced to SEPRONA (environmental agents) so that they can record and investigate if they like it.
Luck.
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Thanks José for your answer and advice. The politics of life in a small village community in Spain are complex and the problem becomes more difficult to deal with when the farmer in question is also the mayor! I will have to think very carefully about whether I report my concerns to SEPRONA or not. Thank you to everyone else who responded and gave advice. Best wishes.
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