I spent hours yesterday blasting soot off my citrus trees. About 75% of the leaves were coated black but a blast of a mix of Ivory liquid dish soap, blast of well water and then a rinse of rain water did the trick. Having a greenhouses creates more work with more disease and insect pressures than not. I've had a terrible time with mealybugs and scale this year. It's always something.
Mark,
I have a row of mandarine oranges growing on the south side of my house.
I used to have a bad issue with black soot mold from the mealy bugs that fed on a nearby hackberry tree.
They would drop sugar onto the leaves which fed the mold.
That tree departed this world a few years ago... and so has my black soot problem.
Although I occasionally see black soot mold rearing its ugly head from scale bugs.
But only on the containerized citrus.
The citrus in the ground gets enough cold every winter to keep the insects at bay.
Kevin
