Fall fungicide sprays can protect fruit trees

AS FALL DEEPENS, the number of gardening tasks left to do gets smaller and smaller. Some of them, like sharpening tools for next year, can be skipped or postponed until spring without serious consequences. Not so with fall sprays for fruit trees.

The common diseases of peaches, apricots, plums and cherries are best controlled with fall fungicide sprays. Most insect problems (aphids on the leaves and worms in the fruit) are best treated in the early spring, so make a note of what bugs plagued your trees this year and be ready to deal with them next year.

Here are the diseases you should tackle this fall:

Apples: The cause of spotty leaves and rough scabby fruit is usually a fungus disease called apple scab. Fungicide sprays won’t be of use until spring, but the overwintering spores are lying in wait in the fallen leaves and fruit around your trees. Rake those up and get them out of the way to reduce the number of spores that will germinate next spring.

Peaches, apricots, plums and cherries: These fruit trees are all susceptible to diseases that cause red or brown spots in leaves and dieback of twigs and branches. Sometimes there are splits in the bark and sometimes there are brownish blobs of sap exuding from them. Bacterial canker and Coryneum blight are diseases that cause these symptoms. Their spores overwinter in the margins of these cankers and in the rough tissue around buds. First, prune out the dead and dying branches and remove them from your orchard or garden. Then, as leaves begin to drop off (and with any luck, before heavy rains start), spray trees with one of the many copper fungicides available in garden centers. By spraying as the leaves fall, you are protecting the tissue where next year’s buds are. Copper Fungicide, Kop-R-Spray, Microcop, Daconil, Immunox and Captan are all examples of copper fungicides, but there are others, too. Read all product labels and be sure the one you purchase is labeled for the kind of fruit tree you have and the diseases you are trying to control.

For more information on diseases and pests of fruit trees and other garden/farm plants, visit WSU Extension’s Hortsense Web page at http://pep.wsu.edu/hortsense or call your local Master Gardener Program.

This week in the garden

Have your frost protectors ready to put out. While some parts of Spokane have had a nip of frost, most areas haven’t been hit yet.

Keep harvesting vegetables and fruit as they get ripe. If you have too much to use, take it to the nearest food bank.

Treat lawn weeds that are appearing with the cooler weather. Read label directions and follow them.

As you pull out annuals or move other plants around, take some time to work in compost. Next spring your plants will have all the extra nutrients to get a good start.

Finish removing old raspberry and blackberry canes and tying up the new ones. Remove the spindly small canes and leave only the largest and strongest ones for next year. Top dress the cane bed with some compost.

Now is a great time to plant fall bulbs. Try layering a series of bulbs in the same hole. Dig a large hole to the depth needed by daffodils and tulips, plant them and then put in a layer of smaller bulbs. They will come up at different times during the spring and give you color for a longer period.

Aerate lawns in the next few weeks. Apply fertilizer or a top dressing of compost after you do. The holes will channel fertilizer, compost and winter rains deeper into the soil.

Check the garden event calendar in Friday’s INLife section for a list of upcoming fall gardening events. They are a great way to spend the last beautiful days of the gardening season.

If you want to make compost this fall or next spring, start saving leaves as they fall now. If you don’t have leaves, start asking neighbors and friends if you could get theirs.

Start sending in your requests for 2005 seed catalogs and checking out the bookstores for new garden reads for winter.