Felt cherry (Prunus tomentosa) is a Far Eastern tree shrub that grows no higher than three meters in height. Due to the early beautiful flowering and small sweet fruits grown by growers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Fruits of felted cherries are much smaller than ordinary cherries, but with almost no acid they won universal love. Felt cherries are eaten fresh, frozen for the winter, boiled from them jam, jams and compotes. The plant is simple in the care and cultivation and quite cold-resistant.
Common diseases of felted cherries
Sometimes, going out into the garden, we notice that unpleasant changes are taking place with the felt cherry. Wondering why the leaves of the cherry are drying and the barely tangled fruits are falling down, we determine that the plant is sick. Felt cherries can become ill with moniliasis, congestion and sometimes coccomycosis. Often, the external signs of the disease are very similar to each other, but in order to choose the right remedy, you need to establish the correct diagnosis. 
Insects can settle in the leaves of the plant. Let us consider in more detail the main diseases of felt cherries and their treatment. For a quick response to garden diseases, the gardener's first-aid kit should include: Bordeaux mixture or copper sulphate, hydrated lime and garden var, preparations based on "Fundazole" and the presence of fungicides. Insecticides should always be on hand.
Did you know? It is also desirable to attract birds to fight insects in the garden. For birds you need to install birdhouses and feeders.
Moniliasis (monilial burn)
Felt cherry is a very unpretentious plant, so diseases are rarely and unwillingly visited. The least resistant plant to the disease, which is called monilial burn
The first signs of the disease are seen by visual inspection of the shrub. Small cracks are visible on the bark, gum begins to flow from them. Gum is a sticky organic substance, or else wood resin. Gum appears on the bark of the tree only when mechanical damage to the bark. The flowers and leaves of the cherries fade and turn yellow, the branches gradually begin to dry out. it monilioz cherry. Outwardly, it is very similar to the fact that the branches froze with returnable night frosts or the gardener overdid with chemical treatments and simply burned the plant. 
The cause of the disaster is the development of the Monilia mushroom. Its development is rapid, it is rapidly developing and infecting healthy branches with spores of the fungus. And now among the bright spring greens appear dead bald spots with withered foliage. If you do not start treatment, such a plant is doomed to death.
We begin treatment of felt cherries from moniliosis:
- First of all, we carefully examine the sick felted cherry, look for burns on the bark and cut out all the branches with traces of the disease. Sawed infected branches are carried outside the garden area and burned.
- Before flowering, the shrub is sprayed with this solution: 10 g of "Fundazol", "Topaz" or "Topsina" is dissolved in 10 liters of water.
- If the spring is rainy and damp, spraying should be repeated in a week (near the end of flowering).
- For the treatment of moniliosis, subsequent treatments of the diseased shrub need to be carried out in the fall and next spring with such solutions:
- The plant is sprayed with a 3% Bordeaux mixture or 3% copper sulfate solution.
- Spraying with the same preparations, but their 1% solution is taken.
Did you know? Monilioz felted cherries - the disease is extremely unpleasant, and if you leave the plant without pruning and treatment, it will inevitably die.
Klesterosporiosis
Klesterosporiozom mainly suffer from stone fruit trees and shrubs. Plum, peach trees and apricot are easily affected, but the most unstable cultures are cherry and felt cherry. The second name for this disease is perforated spotting. The fungus Clasterosporium carpophilum is the causative agent of nodules. Decaying, rotting wood and warm, wet weather are excellent breeding grounds for mushroom spores. Spores of the fungus do not lose their vitality in the winter.
As soon as the spring temperature rises above + 4 ° C and melting of snow and drops begins - the spores of the fungus become more active and form expanding mycelium in the form of brown pillows on infected branches and swollen buds. Insects and wind spread spores and infect healthy plants. The infestation of the garden occurs within a week, since the klyasterosporiosis has a very short incubation period - up to four days. During the summer there is a development of 3-4 generations of the fungus. 
The first signs of the disease appear as brown-brown or red-brown spots on the leaves of felt cherries. During the week, the tissue in the center of the affected spot dries out and gets enough sleep, and small leaves (up to 2 mm) through the holes remain on the leaves. Along the edges of the hole, the edges of the sheet tissue darken, a dark border is obtained. This is a hallmark of phytosteriasis from other fungal diseases.
Cracks appear on the cortex of plants infested with klesterosporosis, from which gum oozes (a sticky organic substance similar to tree gum). The shrub buds affected by the mycelium darken and die off, and the color dries out and crumbles. Cherry dries, lags behind in growth, it is less leafy and earlier sheds leaves in the fall, unlike healthy plants.
Prevention and treatment of cholesterol:
- We choose for planting varieties resistant to phytosteriasis.
- In time we cut down root shoots. By avoiding thickening, we thereby prevent outbreaks of fungal diseases.
- The plant will be strong and healthy if it is fertilized and watered in time.
- After pruning the branches we handle mechanical damages with the garden pitch.
- In the autumn we remove fallen leaves and carrion - pests and fungal spores can hibernate in them.
Spring do three garden treatments:
- Spraying Bordeaux mixture (on bare branches).
- For slightly loose kidneys, treatment with Kuproksat.
- After the second treatment again "Kuproksat" after 14 days.
Important! The last chemical treatment is carried out no later than 21 days before picking the berries.
Coccomycosis
The disease came in the last century from the Scandinavian countries and strikes cherry trees. The disease is fungal, excited by a fungus-parasite, living and breeding in the leaves of the cherry. The leaves of an infected tree turn yellow, become covered with dark spots and prematurely fall off the tree. In the fight against coccomycosis, fungicidal treatments that suppress the development of fungal spores and eventually destroy them help.
Felt cherries are almost not affected by coccomycosis, but if this happens, we treat the shrub by spraying with fungicides. 
Garden care, timely cutting of branches of felt cherries and treatment with fungicides and "Fundazole" for the prevention of diseases - this is the basis of the health of the cherry orchard.
Pocket Disease
Felted cherry disease, caused by the spores of the Taphrina fungus, looks like a strange-shaped ovary on a cherry. Faded plant forms fruits without a bone and in the form of elongated sacks. These "pockets" are the cradle for the ripening of mushroom spores. Even after drying, these berries are a source of infection. It is necessary to remove from the plant and burn the affected berries, and treat the diseased plant with systemic fungicides. 
How to deal with the main pests of cherry
Mouse families are the main misfortune of felt cherries. They gnaw bark on a bush in winter. The crust that is under the snow turns out to be damaged, as the mouse tunnels its burrows and tunnels to the plant also under the snow cover.
Methods of rodent control
In the fall, the shrub trunks are covered with a fine-meshed metal mesh, poisonous baits are laid out near the cherries. In winter, the snow, located near the pristvolny circles, densely trampled in a radius of a meter. At the end of winter, the snow is completely cleared from the trunk of the bush.
Plum moth
Insect pests spoils not only plums, but also other fruits, not bypassing with their attention the fruits of felt cherries. The pest larvae feed on the pulp of the fruit, gum drops remain on the gnawed fruits, the spoiled fruits do not grow, the cherry berries gradually stop growing and dry. During the warm season in the garden can grow several generations of plum moths. The fight against the pest must begin as soon as the mass of moth moths begins.
Biological method
You can hang bait traps for butterflies. In the garden, tanks with sweet compotes, to which glue is added, are placed and hung in trees. Butterflies fly to the smell and die in the glue. Traps are cleaned every day from dead insects and pour compote into them. So we will protect the felt cherry from the larvae of the moth larvae.
Chemical method (two treatments are carried out)
- The first treatment immediately after flowering, when the ovary of the fruit begins to fill, with the preparations "Decis" or "Alatar". We destroy the first generation of moth.
- The second spraying is carried out in the third decade of July. Treat with drugs "Karbofos" or "Kinmiks." This spraying we clean the garden from the second generation of moth.
Aphid
How often one has to observe in the garden how the underside of the leaves of the felt cherry tree is dotted with small black insects. It appeared aphid on cherry. Aphid sucks the sap of the plant, weakening it and opening the way for various diseases.
You can fight with aphids folk methods:
- Spray the bushes in the occupied shale with ash solution. To prepare the solution, one-liter jar of wood ash is poured with 5 liters of water and infused for 24 hours.
- Well helps the treatment of affected leaves with soap extract. A piece of gray laundry soap is rubbed on a grater and poured with warm water in a volume of 10 liters. When the soap is completely dissolved in water, you can begin processing.
- Aphids on fruit plants are planted by their "shepherds" - ants. In order to prevent them from spreading aphids on trees and shrubs, traps are attached to the trunks of plants, smeared with glue. Ants are stuck and cannot cross this barrier. The tree remains uninhabited by aphids.
- Aphids do not like spraying infusions on tobacco leaves, yarrow, potato and tomato tops. Infusion with any of these plants is prepared as follows: half a bucket of crushed vegetable mass is filled and poured to the top with boiling water. Cover and insist for two days. The infusion is ready to use.
You can use the insecticide "Iskra" or "Commander". Preparations destroy aphids and caterpillars and protect treated plants until the end of summer.
Plum (Pocket) Mite
The pocket mite, settling on felt cherries, feeds on the sap of young leaves, thereby contributing to the weakening and death of the plant in the future. If, when looking at felt cherries, there are leaves with "warts", it means that the bush is infected with ticks.
Very effective in the fight against mites treatment of boiling water with a bush. Such treatments are carried out in early spring, even before bud breaks, processing along bare branches is possible. Hot water (almost boiling water) is poured into a watering can with a diffuser on the spout and irrigated with tick-borne bushes (along branches).
After three days you can repeat the processing. This is usually enough. When the plant grows off, it is necessary to treat it with insecticides (“Aktara” or “Karate”). In the fall, leaf litter is carefully collected from a shrub, and in October you need to dig up the soil in the near-stem circle of the plant. All these measures will not give mites opportunities for wintering.
Sheet wrench
Caterpillars of leafworm butterflies live and feed on fruit bushes and trees. Caterpillars moths up to 2 cm in size, with a green or brown color. In the spring, they bite inside the buds or buds of the plant, in the summer they feed on leaves and fruits. Leaf-infected shrubs are easily recognizable by folded leaves.
- To combat the leafworms, a careful inspection of the plants is necessary, the destruction of the branches infected with egg-laying, the leaves with the larvae twisted into a tube are broken and burned.
- When the temperature in the spring is established above +4 ° С, treat the plants with the drug "Prophylactin" A solution is made at the rate of: 0.5 l of the drug per 10 l of water. This amount is enough to process three or four bushes of felt cherries.
- If you are late with the spring treatment and the caterpillars have already settled in the leaves and buds of the plant, then it is better to use the treatment with pyrethroids. Suitable drugs such as "Ivanhoe", "AltAlf", "Accord", "Alfatsin", "Alfashans", "Tsi-Alpha", "Fatrin", "Fastak". The working solution with these preparations is made on the basis of the calculation: 10 ml of water per 3 ml of the preparation, apply at air temperature not higher than +25 ° C. In the heat of the drugs are not effective.
- Spraying on the leaves of the shrub with Insegar, an insect growth and development regulator, gives a good result. The main thing is to carry out the treatment before the massive summer of the moth butterfly so that the egg-laying was arranged in the treated leaves.
Important! The use of preparations containing pyrethroids can cause uncontrolled reproduction of ticks in the garden.
How to protect felt cherries from pests and diseases: preventive measures
To sum up all of the above, the following activities are needed to grow a healthy garden:
- Preventive treatment of plants with pest control products.
- Treatment of felt cherries from diseases and pests with chemical and biological remedies.
- Autumn pruning of branches and careful cleaning of the garden from foliage and fallen fruits.
- Digging pristvolnyh circles for the winter, which kills the wintering pests in the soil.
