Silver leaf

What you see

The leaves on one branch take on a distinct silvery metallic sheen, caused by the leaf surface separating from the tissue below. Cut that branch across and there is a dark brown stain in the heartwood. Purple-brown bracket fungi appear on dead wood later.

Conditions

Enters only through wounds, and only when spores are in the air - which is autumn and winter. Dead wood left lying about produces the brackets that release them.

Treatment

Cut the affected branch out 15 cm below any staining in the wood, in summer, and burn or remove it. If the stain reaches the trunk the tree cannot be saved. Remove all dead wood from the orchard.

Prevention

Prune stone fruit only in June, July or August. Paint or leave large wounds to dry in warm weather. Never leave prunings or dead logs lying near the trees.

Months: June, July, August

Plants

Plum, Cherry, Apricot, Peach, Apple, Rose

Remedies

Not recorded — the field is blank rather than guessed.

The thing people get wrong

The silvering is not the fungus - it is air separating the leaf layers, an optical effect. That is why the definitive test is the brown stain in a cut branch, not the leaf colour: several harmless things can silver a leaf. The critical distinction is where the stain reaches. Confined to a branch, cut it out and the tree lives; into the trunk, and the tree is finished.