Plum tree and Brown Rot

[saku]

Last year I had the most abundant amount of plums on my tree that I ever had. I was spending time looking at how to make plum jelly/jams -basically I was counting my chickens before they hatched. Then the brown rot hit and I lost ever plum on my tree, didn't get to eat even one! I know that plum tree should not be pruned until the summer, so I have not pruned it yet. I had planned on spraying neem oil on the tree before it bloomed to try to get rid of any brown rot that survived our unusually cold and snowy winter. But between the rain and my job I have not gotten a chance to do it before it started blooming. Should I go ahead and spray at regular intervals through the season and hope for the best or is there something else I should do? I don't know much about fruit trees, this one just happened to be in the backyard of the house we bought 6 years ago. Up until last year there has not been any problems. I just enjoyed eating what the tree produced. I would appreciate any suggestions on what I can do to get rid of the brown rot and keep it away!

[JONA878]

Hi Saku.
The most essencial thing in the fight against brown rot on plums is to make sure that all the plums are removed from the tree at harvest time.

Mummified plums are a major source of contamination for the following year as they transfere the spores onto the wood where it can overwinter.

Spraying throughout the year will not really help too much.

The best attack is just prior to harvest.

The two chemicals we use are either Switch or Signum.
They both have a harvest interval of only 7 days so can be used quite close to picking.

If they have a different commercial name on your side of the pond then look out for these constituants.

Boscalid + Pycaciostobin.

It does help to some extent if you can control the plum moth in early July as these little devils do open up the fruit for infection.

Jona