Many gardeners are starting their fall garden and landscape clean-up -- which is good and bad. Garden sanitation, if insects or diseases were a problem this year, is an important step to reduce problems next year. But we need to balance pest control with allowing habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators.
So, how can that be done? Clean-up for problem plants Many disease organisms carry over from one season to the next on infected branches, leaves or fruits. Diseased leaves fall to the ground beneath the infected plant, and, if they are not removed and discarded, will produce new fungal spores or bacteria to reinfect plants the following growing season. Removing infected plant debris reduces the disease pressure the following season.
Keep this control method in mind for common shade tree foliage infections, including Anthracnose, powdery mildew, apple scab, Septoria and many other leaf spot pathogens. Black spot of rose is another very common fungal pathogen. People are also reading.
.. In a similar manner, fruit tree disease problems often overwinter on fruit "mummies," dried infected fruits that may remain in the tree or fall to the ground beneath the tree.
If mummies are still in the tree or beneath it, they serve as an infection source the following year. Diseases also remain active from year to year through infected twigs, branches or cankers. Fireblight is one of the most serious fruit and ornamental diseases which overwinters on infected woody tissue.
Fireblight is.