VIEW ARTICLE

Disease Control and Pest Management

Protection of Peach Shoots Against Species of Leucostoma with Benomyl and Captafol. J. Northover, Research Scientist, Agriculture Canada, Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada L0R 2E0; Phytopathology 66:1125-1128. Accepted for publication 26 January 1976. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-66-1125.

Fungicides were applied to severely cankered Loring peach trees during leaf fall and in early spring to prevent infection of 1-year-old scaffold shoots by Leucostoma cincta and L. persoonii. Benomyl and captafol reduced the disease, but captan, dichlone, dichloran, ferbam, and sulfur were ineffective. Bordeaux mixture and dinitro-o-cresol were phytotoxic and increased the severity of the disease. Optimum timing of fungicide application was during and immediately after leaf fall. Late-summer use of benomyl gave slight control, but spring applications of captafol were ineffective. Fungicide programs were effective for only one season. Captafol was equally effective when applied by airblast sprayer in either 850 or 2,270 liter/hectare(ha) of spray, and comparable to dilute sprays of 5,110 liter/ha. Leucostoma persoonii was the minor pathogen and was almost as well controlled by benomyl and captafol as was L. cincta. Shoot infection can be controlled most economically as a secondary effect of the summer application of benomyl against Monilinia fructicola, and particularly from the application of captafol during or immediately after leaf fall for the control of Taphrina deformans.