Olives Oranges And Peppers
Categories:
Fruit Growing
We have been told that olive trees easily become infested with a fungus
disease which they then impart to the orange tree. The same objection is
raised to the planting of pepper trees. May this be true in some parts
of the State and not in others?
The fungus of which you have heard is the "black smut." It is a result,
not a cause. It grows on the honey dew exuded from scale insects and if
your trees have no scale they have no fungus. The olive trees and pepper
trees may communicate this trouble to citrus trees, or vice versa -
whichever gets it first gives it away to the other. If you will work
hard enough to kill the scale wherever it appears you can have all these
trees, but, of course, it costs a lot to fight scale on big pepper
trees, and it is, therefore, wisest usually to choose an ornamental tree
not likely to accept the scale.