Cherry disease? - Ask Extension
My cherry fruit is showing large brown spots. I don’t believe it’s brown rot. I have been diligent about spraying fungicide since before blossom. ...
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Cherry disease? #868257
Asked May 13, 2024, 4:31 PM EDT
My cherry fruit is showing large brown spots. I don’t believe it’s brown rot. I have been diligent about spraying fungicide since before blossom. What could this be?
Frederick County Maryland
Expert Response
These symptoms are consistent with Brown Rot, and the infection period likely took place a couple weeks ago or so. Depending on the fungicide(s) you've been using, perhaps some of the ingredients happen to be less effective against this pathogen compared to others. Orchard growers also rotate fungicides in their spray program, in order to switch out periodically what chemical they are using so it acts differently on the disease spores in question so they can't become resistant to a single treatment type. This might be harder to do at a home scale given the expense of having additional fungicides to use, but is one option to try in another year if your current method of preventative spraying is not effective enough.
The link in the pest management section of our Growing Stone Fruits page that directs you to the Virginia Tech pest management guide publication is a thorough resource for determining which pesticides to consider using, when, and at what dosage rate to combat the typical ailments of cherry trees. (It's a long document, but you can search it for "cherry" or "brown rot" to jump to relevant sections.)
Miri
The link in the pest management section of our Growing Stone Fruits page that directs you to the Virginia Tech pest management guide publication is a thorough resource for determining which pesticides to consider using, when, and at what dosage rate to combat the typical ailments of cherry trees. (It's a long document, but you can search it for "cherry" or "brown rot" to jump to relevant sections.)
Miri
Thank you for the quick response, I was afraid of that! I use a variety of fungicides (Chlorothalonil, Myclobutanil, Captan, Sulfur and Copper). I guess I just missed the exact timing. I have a terrible problem with brown rot on my peach trees. It is incredibly frustrating!
Thanks also for the reference.
Regards,
Dave
Yes, Brown Rot is unfortunately one of the most damaging and commonly-encountered diseases among the stone fruits grown in our region. Weather can interfere with spray schedules and sometimes conditions are just right to promote infection regardless of treatments applied. You seem to be using a good diversity of fungicides, so hopefully next year's disease cycle can be successfully interrupted with your spray regimen.
Miri
Miri