plum pox, well, no, something anyway

[ritaxis]

I was thinking that what's going on with my trees is plum pox.  There is only one treatment: eradication.  Which means sanitary removal of the trees as soon as the plum is stripped.  But according to everything I've read there is no plum pox in California and nobody expects it any time soon.

Then what I thought was that what both the apricot and the plum have is xylella fastidiosa, which is a bacterium spread by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, which is sort of like a leafhopper and sort of like an aphid. The disease is "phony peach disease" -- I don't know why "phony," except that maybe some people use phony to mean unacceptable or puny, not just to mean fake.  But that's not a real likely thing either.

There is brown rot on the plum, but that's different.  For one thing, it's treatable!  For another, it really does appear to be a second problem.

Or more: I think I may have a virus, and more than one fungus going on.  We have a choice of turning the back yard into a surgery or removing the trees to begin with.

Currently, though, I think I'm going for trying to cure the trees.

On a related front, I've been working on getting the primary fermentation going all day.  Seriously, I didn't even get dressed.  But I did make a straining bag, teeny tiny stitches by hand because I was annoyed by the sewing machine.  It fits perfectly inside the bucket!  And I treated the plums very carefully with campden tablets and cut the weird looking parts off them.  The bucket is going under the apple tree, carefully shielded from bugs and detritus and direct light, so I can tend it without being enclosed in the fumes!

Oh, and there's endage in sight for the nerdy gay romantic comedy.   Really, this time.  I've got notes and everything.

Comments

[blackoakdreams.livejournal.com]

If you really think it may be Pierce's Disease, let your local agriculture commission know. The http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/pdcp/index.htm website has listings for who you need to contact. Your county is especially humorless about this. I got threatened once, and received several phone calls when the county sealer saw one of our trucks and I had not asked permission to be in that county beforehand.

I'm almost tempted to tell you to say I said "Hi," but then they are liable to raze your entire garden just to be safe.

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I'm going to package up a couple of the representative plums tightly sealed in plastic and ask. I still think some of them look like the Plum Pox pictures, but it looks like they're real sure there's no Plum Pox on this side of the continent.

I understand why my county would be especially humorless. We've got this burgeoning appelation thing going on, and it looks like what used to be this cool but obscure hobby industry is struggling to position itself like the great wine regions of France or something.

Also, we got really slammed in the medfly and sudden oak death deals, and we're getting hit less hard but annoyingly over the brown apple moth.