Shot hole: how to recognise and treat it

Disease

Shot hole — Photo: Tigerente, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Symptoms

Small purplish or reddish spots on leaves, sometimes with a pale yellow-green rim.
Spot centres turn brown and drop out, leaving small round holes.
Rough, corky, scabby brown spots with dark purple margins on the fruit.
Dead buds and small twig cankers that ooze gum.

Organic treatment

Prune out and destroy infected twigs and buds.
Fixed copper or Bordeaux mixture after leaf fall, before the autumn and winter rains.

Chemical treatment

Fungicide with chlorothalonil after leaf fall, repeated in wet springs at bloom; follow the label dose and pre-harvest interval.

Reference information, not a guarantee. Read and follow the label of any product: dose, safety and the days to wait before harvest.

Prevention

Keep sprinklers off the foliage; use drip irrigation.
Prune to open the canopy for air movement.
Avoid excess nitrogen fertiliser.

Plants it affects

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.