Am I the one causing these diseases and killing my plants

General Fruit Growing
1

I live in West Texas in the middle of nowhere. I bought some ranch land and am having catastrophic problems with diseases on my plants. My grapes leaves dried up and died out of nowhere after insects tore them up, my blueberries did the same thing as well. Peaches got some type of leaf spot or leaf shot disease right after planting. Pinapple quince in a pot right away got a leaf disease when bringing it here from the store. Loquats just got some type of disease that cause the leaves to have dark rust color circles all over them. Pears have black leaf curl and were bare roots. I also have lots of plants including newly received figs that have powdery mildew.

I am starting to blame myself and think I caused the problem by watering everything with rainwater catchment that isn’t filtered. Could spores/mold be in the 55 gallon drum or from the roof it comes from? Or could this possibly be from dead bugs in the watering can that have disease on them.

The only other thing I can think is it’s being transferred by bugs/wind and moisture during spring(we have tons of bugs here including thousands of grasshoppers). The jujubes, pecans, texas persimmon, gojis, yaupon holly, and turkey figs from last year are all fine.

Is it worth me pruning these all the time and spraying them with fungicide? The only other thing I can think is these plants just aren’t cut out for this environment and I’m going to have to go with more native trees.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

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Hi Netstorm:

I’ve been growing many fruits in Amarillo and now Alpine since 1971. I’ve seldom seen those kinds of issues due to any kind of disease. We’re too dry esp in spring to have much leaf disease in particular. The problems I’ve seen are more related to soil and water issues. High pH makes growing blueberries difficult even in pots. Excess fertilizer can burn the leaves. Not enough water can cause some issues but normally not looking like disease. Insects eating the leaves can be a problem. I’ve seen grasshopper and June bug damage. I have seen a little spot or shot disease on stone fruit but not normally bad.

I’ve used plenty of rainwater full of junk without issues.

I have seen powdery mildew on watermelon and grapes but not figs.

Where are you located and do you have any pictures of what’s going on?

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