anyone help?

[fergusonforestry]

friend of mine sent me this message I have to admit its not really my area anyone offer any advice?

 

"my Grandad has a small plum tree in his garden and the leaves have started to die! He's pretty upset. He has a small apple tree about 12ft away from it and is worried its diseased and could then affect his apple tree."

[Graham]

It's aphid damage. Restricted to plums etc and won't jump ship to the apple as far as I know.

[fergusonforestry]

cheers I shall pass that on

[agg221]

His Grandad could deal with it by spraying using soft soap and water - just to keep the tree nice and clean you understand, any effect on the aphids being coincidental (what with soft soap not being a licenced insecticide).

 

He could also do the tree a favour by killing the grass out to the drop line (herbicide or smother with carpet or cardboard) and applying a good mulch of compost. Plums are heavy feeders and don't like competition from grass.

 

Alec

[FatherJack]

It's aphid damage. Restricted to plums etc and won't jump ship to the apple as far as I know.

 

I get similar aphid effects on my apple trees. As other post...............use soap and water as soon as aphids appear to minimise leaf damage. Repeat applications may be required (especially in the present weather conditions).

 

But what impact does the soap have on the natural aphid predators (lady birds and ants)?

[bolthole]

Can you post a picture of the base of the tree?

 

Looking at the grass around the bottom of the tree, I'm guessing there may be some mower damage too....

[peatff]

Put a collar round the bottom to protect it from strimmer damage and spray the aphids with a weak washing up liquid solution, we use Ecover as it's ecological. Get your hands in there and squash as many as you can as it looks like there is a heavy infestation. We had some on our apple tree last year and didn't get any fruit at all.

[fergusonforestry]

thanks fowks said to her about soapy water, not actually seen the tree myself was pics she sent