Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Rainy Weather Risk!!!

Anthracnose is a group of diseases that cause dark, sunken lesions on leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits. Often called leaf, shoot, or twig blight, tree anthracnose results from infection by a number of fungi. It can noticeably blight some trees such as sycamore, ash, oak, and evergreen elms. Because, anthracnose fungi need water to spread and infect, Infections on deciduous plants are more severe when prolonged spring rains occur after new growth appears.

Leaves may curl, shrivel or have spots ranging from tan to black. The infected leaves will often drop at times the entire plant may shed its leaves. When the weather dries, new leaf growth will likely appear. Rake fallen infected leaves up quickly and discard.

Fungicidal sprays can be used to manage anthracnose once it is present and in the future be sprayed to prevent anthracnose during especially wet springs. A natural method would be to use Liquid Copper Soap from Natural Guard. For continued disease resistance a systemic fungicide or broad spectrum fungicide would be a good option.