The Tropical Fruit Forum

Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: Nayelie321 on August 18, 2018, 10:46:11 PM

Title: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Nayelie321 on August 18, 2018, 10:46:11 PM
First of all it’s night time so I’ll take and upload pictures of the affected plants tomorrow.
Leaf Curl has become a tad of a problem in my fruit garden. I’ve tried using copper sulfate to control and eliminate it to no avail. I’ve used organic methods such as neem oil to no avail. I’ve tried using insecticides to control possible vectors but the leaf curl continues(I used both malathion and spinosad). The leaf curl affects my soursop plants the most with weak growth(posting tomorrow) to the point in where the leaves can’t open or grow to their full size. It affects my mangoes, avocados and sapodillas but only on the point of the leaf to a certain extent the damage to them is negligible but visible. It has also affected my langsats, eggfruits, and starapple plants. I’ll post pictures of each tomorrow. I got so angry recently that I stripped the all the leaves from one of my young soursop plants(6ft tall and 7ft wide) then sprayed it with isopropyl alcohol, sprayed it with malathion and then copper sulfate(3 times the recommended amount). It’s been 3 weeks and it’s began to bud out...infected. I’ve managed to control it only on my sapodilla plants and a couple of my mangoes. However the plants that seems to be immune even though they are at close proximity to the infected plants are My rollinia, Rambutan and garcinias(purple mangosteen and achachas). Anyone here has any tips? I’ll upload visuals tomorrow.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: pineislander on August 19, 2018, 07:58:40 AM
What makes you sure this is disease related and not a nutrient problem? Are these all in soil? What has the weather been like?
Pictures will help not just closeup but showing the environment too.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: johnb51 on August 19, 2018, 10:22:54 AM
Where are you located?  California is a BIG state.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Nayelie321 on August 19, 2018, 12:39:33 PM
This is located in a few acres I own in southern Mexico.
 
(https://s33.postimg.cc/rd3alljij/34041_A80-7055-49_AB-8_F6_D-753676_B05355.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/rd3alljij/)

(https://s33.postimg.cc/9n1m0jb2j/827_E6_C86-_A445-4894-_A8_E0-_C85_D17_A057_AF.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/9n1m0jb2j/)

(https://s33.postimg.cc/gq9hg5vxn/A267_EE5_C-_A275-4_F97-_A777-205900_DC4_AA6.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/gq9hg5vxn/)

(https://s33.postimg.cc/yt2k7dzi3/B848_DB72-28_E9-481_B-_B6_E2-650_F8_DB963_A6.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/yt2k7dzi3/)

Those are a few pictures of the leaves of various infected plants. Not all.

At first I thought it was a soil deficiency however I purchased some canister plants recently and they got infected too due to being in close proximity to one of my infected soursop. I used the same soil to fill bags for seedlings too and my seedlings are doing fine their leaves are large with no signs of infection.



(https://s33.postimg.cc/jx40zs8nv/CEDF6_F29-8379-4_DD5-_B870-_A60828183121.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/jx40zs8nv/)

(https://s33.postimg.cc/ch4rdz5iz/DABFFE92-_E490-46_FD-9_E26-21693_DA6_AD20.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/ch4rdz5iz/)

(https://s33.postimg.cc/msh468zor/image.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/image/msh468zor/)
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Guanabanus on August 19, 2018, 12:53:00 PM
Are you fertilizing with Urea?
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Nayelie321 on August 19, 2018, 01:18:11 PM
No. I do fertilize the citrus I have and ocationally use foliage fertilizer on the garcinias and mangoes but not the soursop. Both fertilizer and underutilized plants are infected.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: spaugh on August 19, 2018, 01:55:33 PM
Is it city water?  Maybe too much chlorine or other salts in the agua?
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Nayelie321 on August 19, 2018, 03:58:17 PM
Is it city water?  Maybe too much chlorine or other salts in the agua?

I water the plants using ground water from my well. I don’t treat the water with anything since it’s only used for watering the crops.

Production doesn’t seem to be affected that much since the plants tend to produce a good crop. The main ones affected soursops and canistels which at times produce undersized leaves that look the bulb on a pitcher plant  than anything else and whose production is affected. I only harvested two soursops from the tree this year since it’s infection. Fruit was standard size(5lbs and uniform in shape) so it doesn’t seem to affect the fruit quality.

I’m considering cutting down all the infected trees and burning them. Then I can simply replace them. Most of the infected trees are a few years old but I have grafted backups in the nursery.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: spaugh on August 19, 2018, 06:26:50 PM
Is it city water?  Maybe too much chlorine or other salts in the agua?

I water the plants using ground water from my well. I don’t treat the water with anything since it’s only used for watering the crops.

Production doesn’t seem to be affected that much since the plants tend to produce a good crop. The main ones affected soursops and canistels which at times produce undersized leaves that look the bulb on a pitcher plant  than anything else and whose production is affected. I only harvested two soursops from the tree this year since it’s infection. Fruit was standard size(5lbs and uniform in shape) so it doesn’t seem to affect the fruit quality.

I’m considering cutting down all the infected trees and burning them. Then I can simply replace them. Most of the infected trees are a few years old but I have grafted backups in the nursery.

That seems like a bad thing to do if you are not sure there is actually a disease present and what it is. 

Do you have a TDS meter to measure the solid content in the water and an EC meter to get an idea how much salts are present?

They have those tools very cheap around 12$ on Amazon or ebay if you are the los angeles you could get some and take them back to the farm in Mex.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Nayelie321 on August 19, 2018, 08:42:03 PM
Is it city water?  Maybe too much chlorine or other salts in the agua?

I water the plants using ground water from my well. I don’t treat the water with anything since it’s only used for watering the crops.

Production doesn’t seem to be affected that much since the plants tend to produce a good crop. The main ones affected soursops and canistels which at times produce undersized leaves that look the bulb on a pitcher plant  than anything else and whose production is affected. I only harvested two soursops from the tree this year since it’s infection. Fruit was standard size(5lbs and uniform in shape) so it doesn’t seem to affect the fruit quality.

I’m considering cutting down all the infected trees and burning them. Then I can simply replace them. Most of the infected trees are a few years old but I have grafted backups in the nursery.

That seems like a bad thing to do if you are not sure there is actually a disease present and what it is. 

Do you have a TDS meter to measure the solid content in the water and an EC meter to get an idea how much salts are present?

They have those tools very cheap around 12$ on Amazon or ebay if you are the los angeles you could get some and take them back to the farm in Mex.



I’ll definitely take your advice, Brad. I’ll order them tonight so I can test as soon as possible. Thank you.

Just noticed a couple of my seedling soursops have the disease as well. It’s truly bothersome.
Title: Re: Leaf Curl Mania
Post by: Guanabanus on August 20, 2018, 09:58:22 AM
Any source of Urea, whether in urine (from pets or humans), or soluble fertilizers, sprays, soil mixes, etc., can cause leaf tip issues where the soil is deficient in Nickel.
The Urease enzyme contains Nickel.  Without Urease, plants don't handle Urea well.