Let's play..Name that Fungus!!

[gssgarden]

I should know this one but it hasn't hit me in a few years. Leaves are just drying up. Period. No yellow spots, black spots, bugs..nothing.

As you can see in the one pic, it will effect even half the leaf. Whole branch goes down hill from there.

Seems to act fast as I'll come home and BAM!, branch gone!

Only one plant has it too.

[b54red]

Looks like Gray Mold to me. I have had a couple of outbreaks of it this year. It can spread rather fast if the humidity is high or if you get a couple of rainy or drizzly days in a row. If it gets bad it can even affect your fruit and it will nearly defoliate a plant if left unchecked.

[z_willus_d]

I've got the exact same condition on just one of my plants. Ironically, it's looking better than most others due to their various other more serious issues (got a major thrip and minor leaf-hopper infestation on my hands). I try and pull the affected leaves on first observation, and of course spray with lots of daconil. Failing that, I've been considering a last ditch bleach application.
Good luck!
Naysen

[chalstonsc]

Does gray mold also lead to wilting in its advanced stages? I've had similar problems, always with Black Cherry, again this year, and as it progresses, what is left begins wilting, so am wondering if it is gray mold? Thanks.

[Pyrrho]

I had the same problem with my black cherry last year. I'm not growing it this time around, but I am getting similar problems on a couple of my plants. Nothing major yet -- just pruning/spraying/monitoring.

[rsg2001]

As someone pointed out to me last year, when I posted about the same Black Cherry issue, I lways get that problem on Black Cherry, that if you look really close at the leaves that are withering, you will see there are the telltale rings of early blight; you just don't really notice them so much when the whole leave seres up like that. Black tomato plants have a propensity for getting this, and I've found BC to be especially vulnerable. I stil grow them because I love the tomatoes and I still usually get a very good harvest from them.

[b54red]

Gray Mold will eventually wilt the whole plant. It does appear from my experience that black tomatoes seem especially susceptible to Gray Mold infection. I usually find it first on something like Spudakee or Black Krim before it gets on any of the pinks or reds. This year I have had Gray Mold on the following varieties: BTDP, Indian Stripe, Black Krim, Dana's Dusky Rose, Gary O' Sena, Spudakee, Cherokee Purple and Grubs Mystery Green. I know it isn't scientific but there does seem to be a pattern.

[roper2008]

I am getting grey mold also. It's strange that it's hitting my potato
leaved varieties. Do you think daconil will help with this?

[b54red]

Gray Mold usually takes a higher toll on potato leaf plants but I think that is just because they have fewer leaves for it to destroy so it seems to move faster up the plant. Last year it demolished one each of my Spudakee, Green Giant, and Grubs Mystery Green Plants before it ever affected any of my regular leaf plants. This year I have had more of it on regular leaf plants but almost all of them are blacks.

Daconil may help prevent Gray Mold but last year showed me it is no treatment once it gets started on the plant. The only thing I have found that helps is the bleach solution spray; but even with that it can be hard to stop if the humidity is very high and rains are frequent or long lasting. If you see a few leaves wilting and dying from GM then you can bet there are a lot more infected that you can't see; but you will in a few days.

[gssgarden]

If it's Grey Mold, is it worth it to cut all infected branches? All the way down to the stem??

Greg

[Sun City Linda]

Black Cherry seems to be subject to some kind of unique crud as I found out when I grew it once and there have been threads here that talk about it.

[Dewayne mater]

I agree with BR54red about gray mold. It is nasty stuff and the only thing I disagree with him on this is that is will "eventually" take the whole plant. In my experience, if you don't get it quick, the whole plant is going down and fast! By the time you see a few branches looking like that, don't be surprised if 1/2 of the plant is already infected. Black cherry seems particularly susceptible to me and in fact, I can't remember a year when it wasn't what took down black cherry, sooner or later. I would definitely remove carefully the diseased branches and try not to touch any other part of the plant or any other plant without hand sanitizing. The bleach spray method does indeed kill the mold for now, but within a day or two, you learn how extensive the mold was as many leaves will shrivel, then die. However, the remaining ones and news ones come back healthy as can be. Good luck.

Dewayne mater

[b54red]

In my experience if you use the bleach spray and then get a good long dry spell it usually ends the Gray Mold problem. If on the other hand you get rain over and over again then it seems to keep coming back so repeated treatments are necessary. As a matter of fact it has rained for 3 days here and may rain again tomorrow; but it is not raining right now so I am going out and hitting everything with the bleach spray. I know I may have to do it again in a few days but every bit of disease I can get now will mean much less of a problem in a couple of days when the rain stops.

[gssgarden]

How much Bleach for a one gallon sprayer??

Thanks,

Greg

[b54red]

I add 8 ounces of regular bleach (I prefer the Clorox brand) to a full gallon of water. For a one gallon sprayer you might want to go with 7 1/2 ounces of bleach then fill to the one gallon level. I always add a couple of drops of dish washing liquid as a spreader. Use as fine a spray as possible and wet all portions of the plant and the undersides of all the leaves and spray late in the afternoon close to sundown. Make sure to immediately rinse the sprayer very thoroughly.