Common crops affected
- Peach
- Nectarine
- Cherry
- Plum
What is it?
Monilinia infects blossoms (blossom blight) and ripening fruit (fruit rot), spreading fast in warm, humid conditions and surviving between seasons in mummified fruit and cankered twigs.
How to identify it
- Blossom blight: browned, collapsed flowers with grey spore masses, sometimes with gummy cankers on adjacent twigs.
- Fruit rot: firm brown spots that expand rapidly, soon covered in tan/grey spore tufts.
- Mummified fruit clinging to the tree or on the ground.
- Rapid post-harvest breakdown of infected fruit in storage and transit.
Life cycle & spread
Overwinters in mummies and twig cankers; spores infect blossoms in spring and ripening fruit later; wounds and warm wet weather accelerate fruit infection and spread.
Conditions that favour it
Warm, wet, humid weather at bloom and near harvest; fruit wounds (insects, hail, cracks); carry-over inoculum in mummies and cankers.
Damage and how it spreads
Blossom blight reduces fruit set; fruit rot destroys fruit on the tree and after harvest, often causing severe pre- and post-harvest losses.
Monitoring & scouting
Two critical windows: bloom (blossom blight) and the weeks before harvest (fruit rot). Scout in warm wet spells and protect both windows.
How to control it
- Sanitation (remove mummies and cankered wood), wound and insect management, and preventive protectant programs at bloom and pre-harvest.
Recommended Vegalab solution: Spore Control
Spore Control — natural broad-spectrum fungicide (thymol) applied preventively at bloom and in the pre-harvest ripening window, with thorough coverage; combine with mummy/canker sanitation.
| Role | Product | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Primary control | Spore Control |
Preventing it next season
Remove mummies and cankers, manage fruit-wounding pests and cracking, ensure airflow, and apply preventively at the two key windows.
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