Season Results: Pests Are Still Awake

Snow mold on the lawn in spring

From year to year nature never ceases to amaze us! Spring began with huge snowdrifts and cold weather. The snow had settled by mid-April, thickened and only by the end of the month began to actively melt. At the same time, the soil remained frozen for almost the entire first decade of May. Daily temperatures in April ranged from +7 to +18 ^o C by the middle of the month and above +9 ^o C all days until its end. Night temperatures up to April 11 were not higher than -5 ^of C, and the remainder of the month - from 3 to 6 ^{on the} C with a plus sign. By May 3, it was already +18 ^o C, on May 8 - +24 ^o C, 10 - +28 ^o C, by May 14 the temperature reached +30 ^o C and until the end of the month did not fall below +25 ^oS. (Temperature values ​​are taken from the weather archives for 2013). Active snow melting plus frozen soil led to massive flooding - the water had nowhere to go, only due to runoff along the natural slope.

This is the background, so that the problems arising from this are more clear. The first is numerous burns and drying of the crown - especially affected conifers. Against the background of the strongest solar radiation and high temperatures, increased transpiration went along the crown of conifers, and practically no water entered the crown. In frozen soil, the root system does not work! This spring, I have repeatedly recorded that on the southern slopes, near fences and in other similar places, pines, fir trees, spruces and, especially, thuja transplanted in autumn or winter, simply dried up by mid-May.

Resumption of spruce after a spring burn

Wintering pest hermes siberian on cedar

Cedar pine inhabited by an ordinary engraver

At the same time, another problem arose. The drying out of the crowns of coniferous plants led to a weak resin separation and a significant decrease in the protective capabilities of trees against the attack of stem pests. In early May, not only freshly transplanted pines, but also transplanted pines were the first to suffer from colonization by pine beetles (large and small). For the first time in time, I have stated numerous cases of the death of cedar pines transplanted more than 9-12 years ago from a bark beetle - an ordinary engraver. This species, which usually inhabited strongly weakened trees, in the spring of 2013 actively inhabited all types of pines, spruce, fir, and false sugars. The bark beetle-typographer in the first days of May only occasionally inhabited spruce and there was an assumption that due to the flooding of forests with melt water, he mostly died. However,already on May 7-8, there were already thousands of it in pheromone traps … In May, the printer safely settled a fairly large part of the spruce forests that had survived from last year and its number decreased only by the end of July-beginning of August due to excessive humidity - during this period, by according to forecasters, up to 150% of precipitation fell.

Spider mite on a spruce shoot

May heat without precipitation, "dispersal" of clouds, technogenic smog and ascending air currents led to the accumulation of gaseous oxides (nitrogen, sulfur …) in the atmosphere. After the heat wave, "acidic" rains were almost everywhere. And, as a result, burns on young leaves and shoots until they dry out and part of the leaves fall off. The consequences of burns will manifest themselves throughout the summer - edge necrosis on the leaves of broad-leaved plant species. The chestnuts were particularly affected. Not only from burns, but also from three generations of chestnut leaf miner. The larva of this moth develops in the soft tissues of the leaf, forming numerous round necrosis. By mid-August, a mass discharge of diseased leaves on chestnuts began.

Marginal necrosis on chestnut leaves (photo from the GreenInfo.ru forum)

Kidney mite on currant

Aphids on currants

Excess moisture has led to the fact that from the middle of summer, fungal infections of plants came out on top. Powdery mildew, leaf spots, various rot have become widespread by mid-July (usually the peak of these diseases occurs in mid-August). Among the mass diseases of this season, one can note clasterosporia, or perforated spotting - almost 100% of the plums were affected by this infection. In early June, most of the cherries were affected by a disease such as monilial burn, due to which some of the trees died. As a result of abnormal weather conditions in spring, black crayfish was actively developing on apple trees due to spring burns.

Black cancer on apple tree

Cedar shoot cancer, renewal bud

In July, due to excess moisture, many shoots affected by shoot cancer appeared on the cedar pine. In this case, sanitary pruning is carried out in early August. The dead shoot is cut at the level of the living bud. Trees should preferably be treated with copper-containing preparations.

Autumn honey agaric on the root of a rose

In August, the rapid development of autumn mushroom was observed on a wide variety of plants. For the first time this year, I discovered the fruiting bodies of honey fungus on roses, but this is not surprising - it can develop not only on any woody plants, but also on herbaceous plants. In case of detection of the fruiting bodies of the honey fungus, the plant must be removed and destroyed, all its parts are selected from the soil, the soil, if possible, is replaced and disinfected with copper-containing preparations (copper sulfate, Hom, Abiga-Peak, etc.).

It's late autumn now. During the warming, I looked into the orchard and found that the sucker and aphids on apple trees are still active, egg-laying is in progress. At the ends of the shoots there are a lot of aphid eggs, from which in spring it will populate young shoots. Most of the pests have already hibernated in the soil, in cracks in the bark, or, having laid overwintering eggs, have died.

Copperhead on an apple tree shoot

Aphid egg-laying on an apple tree

Last work to be done before frost

Collect fallen leaves and burn them along with hibernating pest eggs and fungal infections.

• Spray plants with copper-containing preparations, and, if necessary, with insecticides. You can take the organophosphate insecticide Actellik for this - it has a high penetrating power and a short decay period.
• Clean out all necrosis on the trunks and large shoots to healthy wood, coat with a solution of copper sulfate and isolate the wounds with one of the listed putties (garden varnish, balsam varnish, oil paint based on natural drying oil, etc.)