Why green plum fruits fall off, what to do

“Why did the green plum fruits fall off the tree? What reasons led to this and what can be done to prevent this from happening again?”

Unripe plum fruits fell from the tree, most likely due to damage by the goose beetle, one of the most harmful and common types of weevils.

Where does the goose beetle live and what does it eat?

Beetles (purple or copper-red with a violet tint) and larvae overwinter on the soil surface.In early spring they awaken and begin to feed on the buds, gnawing right through them at the base and sometimes even damaging the growing point on the plum, then moves on to the apple tree and other trees.

This beetle caused the plums to fall off

Later they feed on leaves, eat buds, bite off stalks and young fruits. Narrow pits are made in the pulp of the fruit. These pits are covered with cork tissue, which is why tubercles form on the surface of the fruit, spoiling their appearance.

Damaged flowers and buds dry out and fall off. During the period of fruit formation at the plum tree, the female lays eggs in them. She gnaws out a chamber 2-3 mm deep in the pulp, places an egg in it and fills the hole with excrement, with which she introduces spores of the fruit rot fungus and gray rot of stone fruits into the fruit, thus spreading tree diseases.

Larvae hatched from eggs feed inside the fruit pulp, making passages. Such fruits gradually rot and fall off.

The hatched larvae feed in fallen fruits. The larvae stay there for about a month, then go into the soil to a depth of 30 cm to pupate.

In August, a new generation of beetles lives in the crowns, feeds additionally, damaging the buds - the fruit base of the future harvest. In dry, warm autumn it damages fruit buds, growing points, and individual shoots.

For wintering, it climbs under fallen leaves, grass and top layer of soil to a depth of 5 cm, located at a distance of up to 50 cm from the trunk. If there are a lot of geese, the plums fall off en masse, and the fruits become infected with monilia prematurely.

    How to deal with a pest

Trees are treated with insecticides against goose:

• kinmix - 2.5 ml per 10 liters of water
• inta-vir (1 tablet per 10 l).

In gardens, when significant damage is caused by goose, trees should be sprayed after harvesting with fufanon (10 ml per 10 liters of water) or kemifos (10 ml per 10 liters of water). In autumn, remove mummified fruits from trees and burn them.