Peach leaf curl is a disease that affects peach and nectarine trees. Although you may not see symptoms right now in the dormant season in California, it's time to think about treatment, especially if your tree had the disease last year.
Symptoms of this fungal disease include distortion, thickening, and reddening of foliage as trees leaf out in the spring. As weather warms, damaged leaves that die and fall off trees are replaced with new, usually healthy leaves. However, after several years without treatment, peach leaf curl will cause tree decline and reduced fruit production.
Avoid peach leaf curl by growing varieties resistant to the disease. For nonresistant peach and nectarine trees, consider spraying with...
Winter is an ideal time to prune deciduous fruit and shade trees, since the trees are dormant and you can more easily see the tree canopy. In many cases, pruning can also help prevent or control certain insect and disease problems.
For help with pruning, visit the UC IPM web page called Pruning fruit and shade trees and shrubs.This page provides links to plant-specific pruning information for fruit trees, nut trees, landscape trees, and others. You can also find links to diseases and environmental disorders that commonly affect fruit and shade trees, as well as additional information on the topics of landscape management and videos on...
- Author: Niamh Quinn
[From the Winter 2017 issue of the UC IPM Green Bulletin]
Rodenticides are essential tools in the IPM toolbox for rodent management. Exclusion and cultural practices, such as landscape management and sanitation, are also very important tools that should be considered when managing rodent populations. However, persistent and chronic infestations often require the use of rodenticides.
Rats (Fig. 1) and mice are vectors of disease such as plague, leptospirosis, and salmonellosis. Commensal rodents are also associated with the onset of...
/span>Mistletoe hung in doorways is a traditional holiday decoration, but when it's growing on trees in the landscape, this parasitic plant may not seem quite as charming.
There are two types of mistletoe: broadleaf and dwarf. Broadleaf mistletoe is evergreen and can be found growing on common trees such as flowering pear, ash, and birch, while dwarf mistletoe attacks firs, pines, and other conifers.
Mistletoe robs trees of both water and nutrients. If you see small amounts of mistletoe growing on healthy trees in your landscape, it's probably not a cause for concern. However, if a tree is heavily infested, individual branches may be weakened or killed, and trees affected by drought or disease may be stunted or even...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
In a ground-breaking discovery encompassing six years of research, an international team of scientists led by UC Davis chemical ecologist Walter Leal announced they've identified the sex pheromone of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP), an insect that feeds on citrus and transmits the bacteria that causes the deadly citrus greening disease known as Huanglongbing (HLB).
Leal's team included scientists from UC Davis, University of Sao Paulo, and the Fund for Citrus Protection (FUNDECITRUS) from the state of Sao Paulo.
“Dr. Leal's discovery of the ACP pheromone is a significant breakthrough in preventing the spread of this serious citrus insect,...