Taking care of plants in your backyard can be really rewarding, but sometimes you encounter strange things that make you scratch your head. Recently, a Reddit user from Oklahoma found something bizarre in their trees:
a lot of yellow jelly and what they called a “jelly alien nut.” Intrigued and puzzled, they turned to the internet community for answers.
They discovered it was cedar-apple rust causing this strange sight. This disease needs two hosts to complete its life cycle—commonly apples or crabapples, and also juniper trees.
Identifying Cedar-Apple Rust
Cedar-apple rust shows different symptoms depending on the tree it infects. On juniper trees, you might see brown, bumpy growths on the branches that turn into orange jelly-like horns when it gets wet in spring. The juniper tree itself isn’t harmed by these growths.
On crabapple or apple trees, you’ll notice circular yellow spots on the leaves after they bloom. These spots turn into brownish threads or tubes as summer progresses, often seen under the spots on fruits, twigs, and leaves.
Understanding the Life Cycle
You might wonder how long this weird illness sticks around. Well, after seven months, galls start forming, turning into gelatinous lumps after 18 months. The next spring, strange orange telial horns grow from these galls, releasing spores in the rainy weather.
As spring progresses, these horns dry up and fall off. The galls remain stuck on the tree for over a year after they die, making the infection most visible when they’re covered in jelly masses in spring.
Dealing with Cedar-Apple Rust
Luckily, dealing with this infection isn’t too hard. You can prune off the affected parts to stop it from spreading. Remember, cedar-apple rust mainly affects how your plants look—it won’t kill your trees. If you prefer a preventative approach, you can choose apple varieties resistant to this disease or use fungicides.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, cedar-apple rust might be an unusual sight in your garden, but it’s not a serious threat to your trees. Understanding this disease helps you take the right steps if you notice it. Share this knowledge so others can recognize and manage cedar-apple rust too. Happy gardening!
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