Tree problems!

Josh Crisalli.

A selection of fruit trees, now available at Mountain Gardens Nursery & Pet, located at 503 S. Curry St.

There are many things that can threaten the life of your trees and plants. But with our help, we can keep them growing strong.

I have had some customers tell me that removing mistletoe is illegal. Thankfully, an online search has proven that to not be true. Proper removal is important for your plant's health.

What about fruit tree pests? Borers on cherries, aphids on peach, nectarine and apricot wooly aphids on apples and pears and frost damage.

This year, that's what happened to a lot of the fruit trees. The snow with the strong winds we had in April burned the tender new leaves. Then the tips of the branches started growing again. So, the fruit was frozen but the tree did not die.

Other pests on fruit trees are bacterial cancer, crown gall, thrips, spider mites, peach leaf curl, scale and white fly – just to mention a few.

Shade and pine trees can have bark beetles, a big problem up here. Look for leaking sap anywhere on the trunk or branches, you could have a bark beetle problem. It's easy to control though, just let me know. Pine and shade trees can also have a lot of the insects that we have already talked about on fruit trees.

Fungus is another problem, especially in wet years. Also, root disease and Phytophthora.

These are just a few of the problems you may encounter, but don't panic, there is a solution for almost all of them. Bring in any sample of a problem in a plastic bag and we will see if we can ID it.

Mountain Gardens Nursery & Pet is located at 503 S. Curry St., Tehachapi. Make sure to leave your email address so we can send you a specials list.