re: Louisiana Tropical Fruit Gardening - Experiences and Updates

Are you spraying? If you're not spraying you will really struggle to grow mango trees in South Louisiana. We are too humid and wet. That's why Pickering is so great, extreme fungal resistance.

I would try to let it stay dry under a porch if possible the next time it rains and spray with copper before and after rain. They get better at dealing with it when they are older. But new growth on a young tree is susceptible.

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Also made my first batch of guava leaf tea today. Asians swear by it. I prune guavas all the time and figured I might as well make use of the fresh leaves. Waiting for it to cool to try it.

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I make fruit tree leaf tea all the time, though I usually blend things. I’ve never tried guava by itself. I also don’t spray anything on my trees, organic or not. I enjoy throwing dewberry leaves in many of my herbal blends and there’s no shortage of dewberries around.

Can you post a picture or two? Let's confirm it's fungus and then figure out what kind. Copper is usually very good against anthracnose but maybe I'll see something else.

I highly recommend Monterey garden phos. Systemic fungicide that prevents all of this stuff from even happening.

This is what I got:

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Where all those holes are were brown/black spots that then turned to holes or the leaf withers away

OK that's definitely not what I was expecting. I was looking for regular anthracnose damage. This almost looks like fungal shot hole disease that you find on peaches, but mangos don't get shot hole as far as I know. I think what you have here is an insect problem followed by a fungal problem. When some insects feed on the leaf, it creates an entryway for fungus. So you get a bug that bites a part of the leaf and within hours opportunistic fungal spores attack at the spot of the bite. As the fungal spot develops a hole appears in the leaf. This would explain why your copper is isn't doing anything. Rain is washing it off and new fungal spores are hitching a ride on the bugs to get to the leaves.

That's my theory anyway. Now let's kill those sons of bitches. We gotta fix bugs first, then fungus. I'm not one of those all natural "the only pesticide I feel safe using is peppermint oil and dish soap" kind of people. I use chemicals because they work. But I'll start you with the gentlest protocol possible and we can escalate if it doesn't fix your tree.

Bugs: spinosad. Bonide Captain Jack's is the most widely available one. Why spinosad? Because it's a natural organic pesticide that is only toxic to insects and aquatic invertebrates and more importantly because it has a reasonably persistent translaminar effect. The spinosad penetrates the leaves and will briefly act like a systemic pesticide. I would hit the whole tree with spinosad 2-3 times per week when new growth is present. If that doesn't work we can talk about actual systemic pesticides.

Now the fungus. If it was just insect feeding, it wouldn't be so bad. The secondary fungus is what's really jacking up your leaves. I would start with Monterey Garden Phos spray once every week or two. The phosphites it contains suppress fungal cellular respiration but also have the amazing secondary effect of stimulating plant cells to prepare an immediate immune response. The plant doesn't get caught off guard and is immediately ready to attack arriving fungal spores (which are already metabolically weakened from the phosphites). In addition to garden phos, I would spray once a month with Bonide Infuse (propiconazole). This is a true systemic fungicide that will last for about a month in the tissues of the plant. It will control almost any fungal disease you can think of along with many bacterial diseases.

If you want, you can try one thing at a time to use the least amount of chemicals possible to control the issues. But I would hit em with the triple whammy immediately because I hate malignant bugs and fungi.

Sounds increasingly like thrips. They are definitely a thing here in FL and could have arrived with the tree. Spinosad is a good remedy.

Is infuse safe on fruit trees? It doesn’t say

Next mango up is Carrie. I love Carrie but I think I let this one go one day too long. Carrie is notorious for its poor shelf life. It was still delicious and extremely sweet, but it lost most of the resinous Indian spiciness it is known for. Tasted more like just a great classic mango. Look at that juice!



Spent an hour cracking and peeling white sapote seeds for rootstock. I got 7. This the the last time I ever do this bullshite. With the husk on the left, peeled on the right. I'll probably graft a couple with my Suebelle tree and raise the rest as seedlings to see if they can survive the cold here. Anecdotal evidence from Florida this winter suggests that white sapote is about as hardy as a navel orange. If true, Louisiana is missing out on an incredible fruit.

Florida mangos finally showing up in my part of the world. Irwin up top with Haden the middle and Philippine/Caraboa on bottom.