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White rot (Botryosphaeria dothidea) affects both fruit and branches. Fruit rot originates as small circular spots on fruit initiating when fruit begin to mature, expanding outward and inward as temperatures warm. As disease advances, each rotten area develops a cylindrical rot to the fruit core. Rotten fruit drop as disease progresses. Conidia (fungal spores) may also infect branches of unhealthy or stressed trees, entering through wounds or through lenticels. The fungus also colonizes dead wood, especially those killed by fire blight.

White rot.

(Photo: Nicole Ward Gauthier, University of Kentucky)

White rot.

(Photo: John Strang, University of Kentucky)

  
Management:

• Sanitation (removal of branch cankers and infected limbs)
• Fungicides during summer months

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