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Author Topic: Anthracnose or Nutrition issue, can you tell? Would you prune? (mangoes)  (Read 978 times)

JakeFruit

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Anthracnose or Nutrition issue, can you tell? Would you prune? (mangoes)
« on: August 12, 2019, 10:15:58 AM »






My happy little mango tree is not so happy this latest flush. We've had a bunch of rain here recently in SW Florida, so I'm thinking the issue is fungal-related, but I'm used to anthracnose presenting itself as circular patches. There are three branches flushing, the center and right branches are most severely damaged, they are also the oldest flushings, the left branch flushed nearly a week after them and it looks fairly okay. Most-likely an external issue and not systemic, right??

My quandary is now do I take off those two damaged flushes? I was planning on tipping them/cutting out the center growth after this flush to encourage branching, my concern would be that I'm encouraging branching too close to the trunk, but I've been debating the idea. Anybody have advice on what they'd do?
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pineislander

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Re: Anthracnose or Nutrition issue, can you tell? Would you prune? (mangoes)
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2019, 12:17:30 PM »
Maybe it needs to go in the ground to stay happy.
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JakeFruit

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Re: Anthracnose or Nutrition issue, can you tell? Would you prune? (mangoes)
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2019, 01:35:41 PM »
It's been in a 20 gallon fabric pot all season, flushed healthier earlier with no issues. The parent tree showed lots of previous anthracnose infections on the older leaves, I'm guessing it's just highly susceptible. We've had rain every day for almost a month. I picked all the damaged leaves to prevent further problems, I'm thinking I'll just tip them and see what happens. I have some anti-fungal copper spray, but I've sworn off using that if it's at all avoidable.
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JakeFruit

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Re: Anthracnose or Nutrition issue, can you tell? Would you prune? (mangoes)
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2020, 06:35:06 PM »
Just following up on this tree, I believe the issue was I mixed some unfinished compost into the potting soil. It continued to struggle through to the end of the season without pushing any growth that held. Over the winter I bare-rooted the tree, potted it in root-builder pots, and put it in the soilless mixture I mention here: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=35888.msg376483#msg376483

It was in such bad shape going into its new digs. I pruned it back hard and it still dropped nearly all of its leaves. It seemed on the verge of giving up the ghost but the leaves it was holding onto saw it through. It's one strong flush into this season and new nodes are already starting to swell. Here's what it looks like now:

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