Mango Pests, Diseases, and Nutritional Problems

[Julie]

This is my Carrie mango. Is this classic iron deficiency? I live in Miami where there is a limestone bedrock. Is it necessary to apply multiple chelated iron soil drenches per year or should I just treat it as needed?

[Julie]

This is my orange sherbet mango.


There is some black spot on the new growth



I also found these small flies on the undersides of all the leaves

[Julie]

This is my cogshall mango, it has black spots primarily on the undersides of the leaves

[Julie]

This is my Pickering mango. There are black spots on the leaves more so on that he undersides.

[Honest Abe]

Jake fruit, like Har said, as an example, my “Keitt” had the same dark tint on all
Blooms and is totally healthy now and setting a bunch of pea size mangos.

Har, I continue to thoroughly enjoy reading your vast knowledge this thread.

[Guanabanus]

Julie,
Yes, your Carrie probably is also deficient in Iron, but I believe that the color-pattern refers more to Manganese deficiency.

Your Orange Sherbet's new growth looks deficient in Zinc and Sulfur.

Often these undesireable colors show up from root inefficiencies during cold and drought.

I usually treat with multiple chelated micro-nutrients, rather than single-element treatments.

The various tiny spots on the leaves are less important.  They tend to get less frequent when the trees' nutrition is improved.

I don't know from fly identification.

[Julie]

Thank you so much Har for responding I really appreciate it. Do you know of any organic products you could recommend for mango nutrition? I’ve seen your YouTube video where you recommend K Mag so I will get that, do you have any products you could recommend for iron and other nutrients mangoes need?

I’ve been able to find chelated iron and chelated manganese from Albion Organics and I’m considering azomite and kelp meal for the micronutrients but I have no experience with this and don’t want to hurt my trees.

[Guanabanus]

Those products are good.  Add to those chelated Zinc, and Epsom Salt.

[K-Rimes]

Looks like the Black Death to me. All other potted mangoes I’ve had have met the same fate. Any thoughts or is it a goner? I’ve tried copper fungicide, serenade, etc no help. Is it possible to lop the top off and the bottom will re grow? It is still moderately healthy below.

[Guanabanus]

That looks typical of mangos planted in rich black soil and over-watered.

[bsbullie]

Looks like the Black Death to me. All other potted mangoes I’ve had have met the same fate. Any thoughts or is it a goner? I’ve tried copper fungicide, serenade, etc no help. Is it possible to lop the top off and the bottom will re grow? It is still moderately healthy below.

Is that in a pot?  Purchased from Florida?

[K-Rimes]

That looks typical of mangos planted in rich black soil and over-watered.

I fixed this about a year ago. It is planted in about 70% sand, 10% pumice and 20% black soil. It was doing fabulously till a week ago.

[K-Rimes]

Looks like the Black Death to me. All other potted mangoes I’ve had have met the same fate. Any thoughts or is it a goner? I’ve tried copper fungicide, serenade, etc no help. Is it possible to lop the top off and the bottom will re grow? It is still moderately healthy below.

Is that in a pot?  Purchased from Florida?

It is in a 25 gallon pot 70% sand, 20% black soil, 10% pumice. It is a grafted Florida plant but had been living in CA problem free for a year. I thought my greenhouse would save me this winter but evidently not. Interestingly, it survived better without it.

[sapote]

Looks like the Black Death to me. All other potted mangoes I’ve had have met the same fate. Any thoughts or is it a goner? I’ve tried copper fungicide, serenade, etc no help. Is it possible to lop the top off and the bottom will re grow? It is still moderately healthy below.

Cut the brown wood (dark brown or black stain inside the woody part) off until get the the healthy wood. The remain trunk will grow out. Grafted mango plants from FL have this issue in California. I suggest to grow from seedling then graft after it bear fruits.

[K-Rimes]

Looks like the Black Death to me. All other potted mangoes I’ve had have met the same fate. Any thoughts or is it a goner? I’ve tried copper fungicide, serenade, etc no help. Is it possible to lop the top off and the bottom will re grow? It is still moderately healthy below.

Cut the brown wood (dark brown or black stain inside the woody part) off until get the the healthy wood. The remain trunk will grow out. Grafted mango plants from FL have this issue in California. I suggest to grow from seedling then graft after it bear fruits.

I bought this one before finding out about the seedling thing - have Florida seedlings a plenty now, all growing happy in the sand based soils. I chopped right back. Sad, but kinda had to.

[FruitGrower]

This is one I haven’t seen before.
I had a 15 gal “Alampur Baneshan” mango that started showing symptoms of “Black Death” referenced above. The tree had just flowered so I wanted to try to avoid cutting it back so I sprayed and drenched it with sulfur instead. I






A few days later, it was clear that the sulfur wasn’t effective as the flowers were now wilting and the black area had spread to other branches. I did what I should have done initially and cut back the tree until there was no black visible, which only left me with a couple of inches above the graft. 










I removed it from the pot to check its roots and to my surprise, I didn’t find a soggy mess. Instead, what I found was that the medium that was used when it was up-potted from a 7 to a 15 gallon, had been colonized by mycelium, creating a hard outer layer that the roots were not growing into (there were a few roots that got through, but not fibrous). I removed the encrusted outer layer and got down to healthy roots, which brought me back to a 7-gallon size rootball, and I planted it.



Has anyone ever seen this before? I’m guessing the roots were deprived of oxygen by being encased in that mycelium but I had always heard that it’s beneficial to roots, thoughts?
I have some citrus that needs to be potted up, would you use that mycelium-colonized medium (looks like pine bark and sawdust) at a diluted ratio, or should I just spread it like mulch over an in-ground tree?

[Guanabanus]

We don't worry much about black sooty mold on the OUTSIDE of branches and trunks--- spray oil or insecticidal soap or BioWash or Copper sprays keep that in check or even clean it up.

Was the underbark and wood INSIDE your tree's main trunk discolored?

[FruitGrower]

We don't worry much about black sooty mold on the OUTSIDE of branches and trunks--- spray oil or insecticidal soap or BioWash or Copper sprays keep that in check or even clean it up.

Was the underbark and wood INSIDE your tree's main trunk discolored?

To my eye, yes, there was discoloration inside the trunk almost to the graft line. You can see it in the pictures of the branches above. It was less discolored as I went lower on the trunk.  Here’s some better pictures:

[Oncorhynchus]

Can anyone tell me what is going on with the Fruit Punch flowers? They seem to be curling or growing at an angle.

[hawkfish007]

We don't worry much about black sooty mold on the OUTSIDE of branches and trunks--- spray oil or insecticidal soap or BioWash or Copper sprays keep that in check or even clean it up.

Was the underbark and wood INSIDE your tree's main trunk discolored?

To my eye, yes, there was discoloration inside the trunk almost to the graft line. You can see it in the pictures of the branches above. It was less discolored as I went lower on the trunk.  Here’s some better pictures:

I thought black death, underbark discoloration and ultimate demise of mango trees are limited to SoCal. I lost quite a few trees  when I started planting mangoes to these symptoms, I tried abound, regalia, copper etc., but none worked once a mango started to dry up from the top. At the beginning I used rich black soil when planting, now I switched to native soil and sand. But I still loose one or two young mangoes here and there. I would like to know the real reason behind these symptoms. Most folks here in SoCal blame the rootstock, but it can't be true because I lost mangoes on Manilla and Corrientes as well.

[Guanabanus]

FruitGrower,
You were right about the discoloration.

[Guanabanus]

Oncorhynchus,
Those do look a little odd, but not likely a problem.

[FruitGrower]

FruitGrower,
You were right about the discoloration.

Thank you Har!!

[FruitGrower]

We don't worry much about black sooty mold on the OUTSIDE of branches and trunks--- spray oil or insecticidal soap or BioWash or Copper sprays keep that in check or even clean it up.

Was the underbark and wood INSIDE your tree's main trunk discolored?

To my eye, yes, there was discoloration inside the trunk almost to the graft line. You can see it in the pictures of the branches above. It was less discolored as I went lower on the trunk.  Here’s some better pictures:

I thought black death, underbark discoloration and ultimate demise of mango trees are limited to SoCal. I lost quite a few trees  when I started planting mangoes to these symptoms, I tried abound, regalia, copper etc., but none worked once a mango started to dry up from the top. At the beginning I used rich black soil when planting, now I switched to native soil and sand. But I still loose one or two young mangoes here and there. I would like to know the real reason behind these symptoms. Most folks here in SoCal blame the rootstock, but it can't be true because I lost mangoes on Manilla and Corrientes as well.

When I started growing I lost several mangos in the winter with these same symptoms. Those were potted plants in regular potting soil (mostly peat moss) and were likely over-watered. I always assumed that this combination of factors resulted in an overly-saturated medium that was devoid of oxygen. This was why I was surprised when I didn’t see that in my potted “Alampur Baneshan “ referenced above.

[Guanabanus]

The tender new growth going into a severe wilt like that may have been from volatilization of the Sulfur sprayed on them, when the leaf-surface temperature was over 85-degrees Fahrenheit, in the next three days after spraying.