Phytophthora infection of Jakfruit

[cbss_daviefl]

Yesterday, I took a walk through the yard and found one of my Jak trees looking pretty terrible. Looks like the rain we had has claimed a victim. We had no rain the past two days and the tree looks totally drought stressed. I sent the pic to friends and the consensus phytophthora.  This morning I drenched and foliar sprayed with K-phite, which is the same as agrifos or plant doctor.  To me the tree looks pretty bad, maybe past the point of no return but I have no experience dealing with this.


My questions for those with experience treating infected trees are:

Should the tree be removed to avoid the accidental infection of other trees?

If no, is it possible to keep an infected tree healthy and productive with continued treatment?

How frequently does an infected tree require treatment?

 

[noochka1]

Hi Brandon,

I'm using Agri-Fos to control phytopthora in durian.   My experience is that you will probably lose all of your fruit and leaves, but the tree will recover.  I used Agri-Fos weekly as a foliar spray for a month at 3-4 times the recommended strength - as recommended by durian growers elsewhere - and also soil-drenched the trees for good measure.  Now the trees are growing happily again and, although they test super high for phosphorus, I don't see any signs of damage from the application or from phytopthora.  The same can be said for my mangosteen seedlings.  I believe that there is a  tree injection available on the internet and you might want to look into that given the size of your tree.   

Good luck!

Scott

[murahilin]

I don't think you need to remove the tree because the other trees were likely exposed to phytophthora as well with the flooding but that one tree died because it was the only one susceptible.

[cbss_daviefl]

My assumption is that the tree is going to die and relieve me the burden of the choice. It seems pretty far gone.  But I will continue to treat it just to see if it will recover.

I am not sure if this is valid information but I read it is possible for the infection to spread when infected foliage gets rained on and splashes adjacent foliage. 

http://www.ipcnet.org/n/bpd/phytophthora/phytophthora_spread.htm

I do agree that all my trees were exposed and only this one seems extremely susceptible.  Now that I know what infected foliage looks like, there are some other trees that have foliage that might be signs of phytophthora. These might be just potassium deficiency.

[TropicalFruitHunters]

Are you going to remove all of the infected/dead branches..cutting back the tree in hopes that it recovers?

[noochka1]

Agri-Fos and similar products aren't a cure for the damage already showing, they a tonic against future damage.  They will not help the leaves and fruit already affected by phytopthora, but they will definitely help your tree to grow new healthy leaves and fruit.  My durian trees were completely defoliated, but they are just fine now. 

Just don't give in to your desire to chop the tree down - even if it's completely bare.  Chances are it will come back.

[Guayaba]

I agree, that looks like phytopthora infection to me. My mangos and avocados that were infected looked similar. I was hoping jackfruit was less suseptable to phytopthora. If the tree dies, remove it and as many of the larger roots as possible. The fungus can produce massive colonies in decaying roots and trunks that can spread the infection to healthy plants. I learned the hard way and now remove any plant that dies asap!

[Sleepdoc]

This is my Amber.  It has been near standing water from the recent heavy rains.  The trunk was never in standing water but part of the root system was underwater for 7 days.