Have had this in the ground since ~Jan 2018. It’s put on a good amount of growth but has come to be pretty sorry looking mid to late season. Each season, I’ve seen some shothole and seems that my fixed copper spray last winter helped but issue is back along with a couple others. Pictures are below, would love advice on what this is, how to address and if there’s a resource in CA perhaps to take a look at this tissue, keeping in my I am just a small backyard hobbyist.
What I see:
Brownish spots followed by dried dead spots that then fall out-- “shothole”
Some branches have much smaller leaves than normal that are curled
Many leaves have dead margins
Noticed today small dusty/grainy bumps on the underside of leaves, don’t look like bugs but maybe what they left behind…
@Ahmad I will do that. I was definitely going to do a couple dormant oil and copper sprays, but wasn’t sure also what could be done during the season, admittedly that’s mostly gone now but thinking of the next season, too.
Do you think that covers the varied symptoms across shothole, small curled dead leaves, and junk underneath?
Yes, if you control the organism that’s causing the symptoms, all of them will go away. Copper spray is kind of mild, and is typically done in the dormant season. For this disease, I think you need to spray during the growing season with the agents that I suggested or some other strong anti fungal. One important thing to do is to collect all the diseased leaves and burn them, so that you limit spreading the fungal spores in your yard.
@Ahmad that’s news to me. I will look into the anti-fungals and try to do that urgently.
I don’t think I can burn here, and would be worried given how fireprone we’ve been in this general area (northern CA). But I can put out in the municipal compost that’s taken away weekly, think that’s good enough? Also, do you think it’s a problem if I defoliate it before they all drop perhaps once I see the first leaf drop (hasn’t started here yet! ) ? I’d be worried about picking all of it out of the mulch unless I remove the mulch as well, and even then I am sure spores would mix into the soil.
You definitely should not burn it outside, but if you have a fire place, perhaps you can burn them there. Yes, I would defoliate affected leaves, and if you can’t burn, I would put them in trash, not in yard waste that will be composted and find its way to other people’s yards.
) ? I’d be worried about picking all of it out of the mulch unless I remove the mulch as well, and even then I am sure spores would mix into the soil.