USA, Soysoap 100 "Witch's Broom, Growth Irregularity In Plants!"

From Wikipedia, Witch's brooms on Downy Birch, caused by the fungus Taphrina betulinaA Witch's broom is a disease or deformity in a woody plant, typically a tree, where the natural structure of the plant is changed. A dense mass of shoots grow from a single point, with the resulting structure resembling a broom or a bird's nest.

One example of this would be cytokinin, a phytohormone, interfering with an auxin-regulated bud. Usually, auxin would keep the secondary, tertiary, and so on apices from growing too much, but cytokinin releases them from this control, and that is why these other apexes grow into witch brooms.

Witch's broom growth may last several years and can be caused by many different types of organisms, such as fungi, insects, mistletoe, mites, nematodes, and viruses. Human activity is sometimes the reason for the introduction of these organisms; for example, when a person prunes a tree improperly and leaves the tree susceptible to disease.

Witch's brooms occasionally result in desirable changes. Some cultivars of trees, such as Picea orientalis 'Tom Thumb Gold', were discovered as witch's brooms.

Treatment: Currently the treatment is to cut back from the Witches Broom a meter of the branch. But with a treatment the Witches Broom in a few days simply drops off!



The "Witches Broom" is very obvious in this tree, its that mass on the limbs!



After Treatment the branches grow right through the "Witches Broom", and shortly the "Witches Broom" drops to the ground!