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Honeysuckle (honeysuckle) is a climbing shrub that is often used to create a hedge on the site. A healthy plant has not only a beautiful appearance, but also tasty, healthy fruits. Despite the fact that the culture is unpretentious, in some cases, gardeners are faced with the fact that the honeysuckle has dried up. To save the landings, it is necessary to find out the cause as early as possible and take a set of protective measures.
Why does honeysuckle dry
There are several main reasons why honeysuckle is withered:
- natural and climatic;
- agrotechnical;
- infectious and fungal diseases;
- insect pests.
To prevent the honeysuckle from drying out, it is necessary to maintain an optimal level of soil moisture. Especially in dry, hot weather and a long absence of precipitation.
The root system of honeysuckle is located in the upper layers of the soil. It is easy to damage it when loosening the soil. The underground activity of shrews and moles can also damage the roots.
An equally important reason that honeysuckle has dried up is a violation of planting rules and improper care. A poorly chosen site, characterized by heavy acidic soil, lack or excess of light, weaken the honeysuckle and make it susceptible to infection with fungal and infectious diseases.
Common reasons why honeysuckle withers
If, when clarifying the reason why the honeysuckle has dried up, climatic and agrotechnical factors are excluded, the most common is the impact of infections and pests. Diseases that cause the death of a plant are divided into fungal and infectious.
Fungal diseases of honeysuckle:
- Cercosporosis is manifested by the formation of spots on the foliage with a brown edging, the color of which changes from dark green to gray. Spores of the fungus in the form of black dust multiply under the affected areas, destroying the leaf surface.
In case of cercosporosis, honeysuckle becomes covered with dark spots.
- Powdery mildew. The fungus forms a white, cobweb-like bloom on the shoots. Most often, plantings growing in the shade are exposed to this disease.
The main cause of powdery mildew is lack of water
- Ramulariasis, white spotting can cause the honeysuckle to dry out. The disease affects the stems and leaf surface with gray-brown spots with a white core.
High humidity increases powdery stains
- If the honeysuckle bush dries up, the cause may be tuberculariosis. It is easy to identify by the tubercles appearing on the branches, inside which fungi multiply.
The teardrop-shaped swellings visible to the naked eye that appear on the branches are a symptom of a dangerous fungal disease.
- If, before the honeysuckle has dried, the leaves turn a dirty brown color, then the plant has been hit rust... The fungus is especially dangerous in wet summer, when favorable conditions are created for its intensive spread.
The brown color of the leaves indicates the presence of a disease such as rust.
- Frostbreakers. In spring, when night frosts may return, the bark on young branches cracks, creating conditions for the reproduction of the saprotrophic fungus.
Branches bursting from frost are covered with a gray bloom
Viral diseases that cause honeysuckle to dry out are less common than fungal diseases:
- Mosaic rash virus. Leads to excessive bushiness of honeysuckle. Increased growth of lateral shoots and shortening of internodes is observed. The leaves stop developing, which leads to the death of the entire bush.
Mosaic dezuha can destroy a whole plant
- Speckled leaves. The appearance of this disease is evidenced by the motley spots and stains that have appeared on the foliage. If the leaves of honeysuckle have dried up, the cause may be soil nematodes - roundworms.
Affected foliage is irregular in color and dried out areas
- Mosaic. First, the leaf surface near the veins brightens. Then yellow dots appear, which increase in size and turn into faded areas. If after that the honeysuckle dried up, it means that the time was lost, and timely measures were not taken.
The leaves of plants affected by the mosaic turn yellow and curl
Honeysuckle branches also dry from the pathogenic effects of insects and pests:
- Leaf roll - a small brown butterfly, covered with fluff, whose caterpillars devour young foliage.
The most dangerous rose and variegated-golden leaf rollers
- Honeysuckle aphid. It develops in huge quantities and actively sucks juice from young shoots, depriving the plant of strength.
During the entire growing season, several generations of aphids develop.
- Willow and acacia scale insects attach to shoots and, like aphids, suck out the juice, inhibiting the growth of honeysuckle.
Scabbards sucking juice from shoots suppress the vital activity of plants
- If the underside of the leaves is covered with spots of different sizes, and by the end of summer all the foliage has turned brown, twisted, and in August the honeysuckle has dried up, this is the result of activity honeysuckle mite, having microscopic dimensions.
Thickened, shaded plantings and high humidity create favorable conditions for the reproduction of the honeysuckle mite-rinkafitoptus
- Zlatka - a golden-green beetle that lays eggs in the tissue of branches. While developing, the larvae gnaw the stems from the inside. This causes the foliage to wilt and the edible honeysuckle dries out.
The larvae of the goldfish gnaw wide passages under the bark of the roots, dropping to a depth of 30 cm
- Gooseberry moth (harlequin). A large motley butterfly lays eggs on plants in mid-July. The emerging caterpillars feed on young shoots and foliage.
Females lay up to 300 eggs on the underside of the leaves between the veins
Timely detection of insect pests and taking protective measures can save the planting of honeysuckle, even if it is partially dry.
What to do if honeysuckle dries
When the first signs of the disease are found, the affected leaves must be removed, and the bush must be treated with special preparations containing copper, for example, Bordeaux or Burgundy liquid. The fight against viral diseases is reduced to limiting the spread, removing the affected and prophylactic treatment of healthy areas.
To prevent the foliage from drying out, the crowns of the bushes should not be allowed to thicken. Thinning pruning is recommended at 4-5 years of plant life. In the early years, you can carry out sanitary pruning, consisting of the removal of broken and dried shoots.
During the ripening of the fruit, honeysuckle especially needs a sufficient amount of moisture. In May-June, 4-6 good watering should be carried out, spending up to 5 buckets of water for each bush.
Experienced gardening tips
Damaged areas of honeysuckle must be cut off, capturing the healthy part. The cut site is treated with garden pitch.
Experienced gardeners recommend following simple preventive measures that can help prevent honeysuckle diseases and minimize the fight against them.
This requires:
- take out only healthy seedlings into the ground;
- ensure a sufficient level of humidity;
- weed and mulch the space around the trunks;
- choose varieties that are not susceptible to diseases;
- prune the bushes regularly;
- carry out the treatment of plants from pests.
So that the honeysuckle does not dry out from the vigorous activity of sucking insects, in early spring the bushes are treated with such means as Eleksar, Aktara, Aktellik.
Experienced gardeners recommend using the microbiological agent "Baikal EM-1". The drug not only introduces beneficial bacteria into the soil, improving its fertility, but also protects honeysuckle from pests. One fine spray watering can is enough for 5 bushes.
Conclusion
Improper care, pests and diseases can cause honeysuckle to dry out. To avoid this, it is necessary to carefully prepare the site and soil for planting, regularly inspect the plants, carry out timely pruning and preventive treatment. At the first detection of signs of drying, the necessary measures should be taken to protect and save the honeysuckle bushes from death.
