Mango Tree Problems. Please help!

[chad6159]

Ill start out by saying I am new here and this is my first post!

One of my mango trees always flowers like crazy but once the flowers are on there for a while they all turn brown pretty fast (in a day or so) and I never get any mangos. Recently I have been noticing a lot of black spots on the leaves and also big patches of black. Along with just a lot of pieces of leaves missing. Any idea what this is or what is causing all of my flowers to die every year. I have been in this house for 3 years and I have never gotten mangos from this tree. I do have another mango tree on the other side of my yard that has always given me mangos.

The first two years this happened I thought it was because on the other side of my fence there are a bunch of pine trees and I thought that was making the soil to dry. But I am new to this so I am probably wrong. I have been spraying neem oil on it the past few weeks also, but does not seem to be helping as of yet.

The tree is really patchy and I was thinking about pruning it WAY back anyway. Is that a good idea or no? If this is a fungus/disease will pruning it back just to the branches and trunk get rid of it?

Also, does anyone know what is going on with the trunk? is the tree dying? I have never seen a tree trunk with this going on before.

[MangoFang]

Chad - you'll have to get a Floridian to help you here because I'm in the California Desert.
If I remember what's been said about the black spots I believe it could be anthracnose,
a humidity borne disease, and they do spray something for that and your neem oil treatment
might be what they use....but not sure.

And to me the leaves look chewed on or something...some pest maybe....but I could be wrong there
too.  The trunk looks VERY OLD so it could just be the age of the tree that produces
that cracked bark look.   Good luck.

Gary

[chad6159]

Yeah I thought it could be anthracnose and that is why I have started spraying neem oil. Does anyone else know a good treatment for it?

I really want to trim this tree back since it has a few dead branches and it is not full. So I don't want to really treat it and then just prune it back far. That seems like a waste of time treating it to me. But what do I know?

Would it be okay to prune it and how far back should I prune it?

[FruitFreak]

Yeah I thought it could be anthracnose and that is why I have started spraying neem oil. Does anyone else know a good treatment for it?

I really want to trim this tree back since it has a few dead branches and it is not full. So I don't want to really treat it and then just prune it back far. That seems like a waste of time treating it to me. But what do I know?

Would it be okay to prune it and how far back should I prune it?

This post should really be in the mango disease thread.  I see bacterial black spot on the leaves and possibly powdery mildew on the panicles.  Anthracnose is a fungus and a more effective treatment should include a fungicide like copper.

[chad6159]

Yeah I thought it could be anthracnose and that is why I have started spraying neem oil. Does anyone else know a good treatment for it?

I really want to trim this tree back since it has a few dead branches and it is not full. So I don't want to really treat it and then just prune it back far. That seems like a waste of time treating it to me. But what do I know?

Would it be okay to prune it and how far back should I prune it?

This post should really be in the mango disease thread.  I see bacterial black spot on the leaves and possibly powdery mildew on the panicles.  Anthracnose is a fungus and a more effective treatment should include a fungicide like copper.

yeah there is some powdery mildew stuff on the panicles. I did not see the mango disease thread until after I posted this one..sorry about that.

What will get rid of the mildew stuff?

[Cookie Monster]

Use sulfur to get rid of powdery mildew. However, there is a caveat: sulfur should not be used when temps are above, say, mid to low 80's, as it can burn -- meaning no sulfur application after the temps start to warm up in early April.

The leaf notching is caused by sri lankan weevil, which should be controlled when in the grub stage. I've been told that Talstar (soil application) works.

The old vs new bark looks like the tree might have been severely cut back / busted up from high wind.

If the tree is not producing any fruit at all, it could be due to the powdery mildew or an abundance of male flowers. Mangoes will generally produce acceptably without fertilization.

[chad6159]

Use sulfur to get rid of powdery mildew. However, there is a caveat: sulfur should not be used when temps are above, say, mid to low 80's, as it can burn -- meaning no sulfur application after the temps start to warm up in early April.

The leaf notching is caused by sri lankan weevil, which should be controlled when in the grub stage. I've been told that Talstar (soil application) works.

The old vs new bark looks like the tree might have been severely cut back / busted up from high wind.

If the tree is not producing any fruit at all, it could be due to the powdery mildew or an abundance of male flowers. Mangoes will generally produce acceptably without fertilization.

The flowers usually die pretty fast but usually there are a couple of tiny mangos on it. but a week later they die/dry up/fall off. Last I looked there is only one tiny one on there and I would guess that it is not there anymore.

Since I have been in this house, 3 years, I have never cut this tree back this was the state it was in when I bought the house. It always is FULL of flowers but I never get any fruit from it. I am assuming because of the issues going on with it right now.

I do have the sri lankan weevil on my peach tree that is pretty close to this mango tree. I have not seen any signs of them since my peach tree came out of dormancy however. But I always keep an eye out for them.

I will look more into the copper and the sulfur to try to take care of the problem.Thank you!