Nectria is a fungal infection which often attacks via wounds and forms cankers on twigs, branches, and trunks. The cankers are often sunken areas that develop conspicuous yellow to orange-red fungal fruiting bodies in the dead bark. Nectria cankers may girdle twigs and kill them or become elongated and enlarge year after year. Older cankers may develop a characteristic target or bull's-eye shape. Infected branches are susceptible to breakage in wind storms and should be removed.

Management Options

Non-Chemical Management

Provide proper culture to maintain healthy, vigorous, disease-resistant trees.
Avoid wounding trees.
Prune and destroy infected twigs and branches.
Prune properly to reduce risk of infection through pruning wounds or stubs.
To minimize infection risks, do not plant in cold pockets or on poorly drained sites.

Select non-chemical management options as your first choice!

Chemical Management

IMPORTANT: Visit Home and Garden Fact Sheets for more information on using pesticides

None recommended

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Caption: Tubercularia canker fruiting bodies Photo by: R.S. Byther

WSU Extension

Hortsense