Little-peach is possibly a variant of peach-yellows or, at least,
is very similar in nature. It seems to have been described first in
Michigan in the early nineties of the last century but had attacked
orchards in New York before that time so that it is now impossible to
say where it first appeared. Be that as it may, the disease is not now
the exclusive possession of either state but in the twenty years of its
history has become as widely distributed as yellows, covering about
the same territory, and seems now to be equally destructive. Outwardly
the disease differs from yellows chiefly: (1) In delayed rather than
premature ripening of the under-sized fruits of little-peach; (2) the
leaves usually show more green than in yellows and show a decided
tendency to droop or roll; (3) little-peach, as a rule, appears later
in the season than yellows; (4) the characteristic, sickly, wiry shoots
of yellows are seldom present in little-peach. Little-peach is kept at
bay, as in yellows, by extermination of affected trees.
Rosette, though distinct in most of its symptoms from yellows and
little-peach, is clearly similar in nature, is just as virulent and
contagious, is communicated in the same ways and requires the same
treatment. On trees affected with rosette the fruits shrivel and drop
and tufts or rosettes of leaves develop freely. Rosette is not found in
New York nor north of the Potomac and hence is of but passing interest
to peach-growers in this State.
Brown-rot (_Sclerotinia fructigena_ (Persoon) Schroeter), known also as
fruit-mold and ripe-rot, attacks flowers and shoots of the peach, but
is most conspicuous on the ripe or ripening fruits. Here its presence
is quickly detected by a dark discoloration of the skin which is
afterwards partly or wholly covered with pustule-like aggregations of
gray spores. The decayed fruits fall to the ground or more often hang
to the tree, becoming shriveled mummies, each mummy being a storehouse
of fungus threads and spores from which infestation spreads to the
next crop. The rot spreads with surprising rapidity on the fruits in
warm, damp weather either before the fruit is picked or in baskets
while being shipped or stored. Preventive remedies have so far met
with but indifferent success; probably the best method of control is
to destroy the mummy-like fruits and all other sources of infection
either by picking them from the trees, or much better by plowing them
under deeply. Even so it is impossible to exterminate all of the
countless myriads of brown-rot spores. Spraying with the self-boiled
lime-sulphur mixture three times at intervals of three weeks, beginning
as the calyxes drop, is the appointed preventive but the results are
uncertain, as this is one of the diseases in which it is difficult to
touch the spot in spraying. Varieties of peaches show various degrees
of susceptibility to brown-rot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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