Brown rot and blossom wilt: how to recognise and treat it

Disease

Brown rot and blossom wilt — Photo: Rasbak, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Symptoms

Blossoms and leaves on fruiting spurs turn brown and shrivel at flowering time.
A soft brown rot spreads over the fruit, with buff pustules often in concentric rings.
Rotted fruit dries into shrivelled mummies that stay on the tree.
Sunken cankers may form on twigs where the infection spreads from flowers or fruit.

Organic treatment

Remove and dispose of all rotted fruit and mummies promptly, including those on the ground.
Prune out infected spurs, blossoms and dead twigs.
Sulfur sprays can protect blossoms and ripening fruit when repeated.

Chemical treatment

Fungicide with captan during bloom and before harvest; follow the label dose and pre-harvest interval.

Reference information, not a guarantee. Read and follow the label of any product: dose, safety and the days to wait before harvest.

Prevention

Net trees against birds, because the fungus enters through wounds in the fruit.
Summer-prune to let air move through the canopy.
Grow less susceptible cultivars, for example apples 'Bramley's Seedling' and 'Gala'.

Plants it affects

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.