Presumed recurrent fungal infection on Trident Maple

Lars Grimm

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Hey Lars,

How is your maple doing this year? Doing anything different to treat the issue this year?

I have been much more diligent about my overwinter anti-fungal regimen. This year I used lime sulphur, oxiphos, and copper sulfate spread out over the course of winter (not all at once). Since budding out, I have been doing once monthly granular applications of systemic Cleary 3336. I have also been doing once monthly sprays of antifungals, alternating daconil and copper sulfate. I am still having problems though with my Tridents that started again this May. It is not as bad as last year though. I am coming around to the belief that it is not fungal (at least solely), but may be related to tender new growth with increased temperatures and humidity. I am being diligent about removing any infected leaves and have started putting my trees under 30% shade cloth. That seems to have helped.

I also planted a few tridents in a new grow bed this year and they appear to be disease free. The grow bed is right next to my display area but so far nothing has bothered them.
 

JudyB

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I remember reading that if you have this issue, the best thing to do is to ground grow for a year. That apparently solves the issue and then it can go back in a pot.
 

Lars Grimm

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We did a club zoom meeting today with Jonas Duipich and I showed him pictures and asked about this. He said it is not an uncommon problem and he has struggled with it. He had some trees sent to the lab for testing. It is a combination of soil fungus with pythium and then a leaf fungus. Treating pythium is difficult. Hydrogen peroxide (zerotol) can do it. He also recommended subdue (mefenoxam) which is very expensive though and only requires a few drops. Trying to get the roots to outgrow it (i.e., ground growing) can also work.

Interestingly, he commented that when you get an infection on the leaf tips it often makes him think of root pathogen. Spots on the main part of the leaf is usually leaf pathogen.

I have zerotol and am going to start giving it a try. I'll keep everyone updated.
 

JoeR

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I remember reading that if you have this issue, the best thing to do is to ground grow for a year. That apparently solves the issue and then it can go back in a pot.
Unfortunately, I have found this not to be the case. Of course mileage may vary.

I had a large trident that did not originally show symptoms of anthracnose, but it was an ugly stump so I planted it in the ground away from any other maples or trees. Today three years later it sometimes shows diseased leaves. In terms of growth, it has annually produced over 6 foot shoots each year, so not sure this alone will rid the disease. It does help, though.
 
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I also get the same symptoms on my tridents. I had it last year, and again this year despite diligent Winter spraying. In the meanwhile I found this video which is interesting.
 
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This is a great video. Thank you so much for sharing.
The video is great but the news not so much. If these symptoms we are all describing are in fact phoma, it apparently cannot be cured. Meaning we have to trash the trees. In my case I’m going to give it another year and see what happens. It the problem persists next spring I will probably ditch the trees 😔
 

Lars Grimm

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The video is great but the news not so much. If these symptoms we are all describing are in fact phoma, it apparently cannot be cured. Meaning we have to trash the trees. In my case I’m going to give it another year and see what happens. It the problem persists next spring I will probably ditch the trees 😔
I am going to be using Subdue to try and treat it this year. I gave one dose last year, but later in the season. This year I will be treating them in a couple weeks once they have all started to leaf out. I'll keep this thread updated.
 

bwaynef

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These fungicides list Phoma among the diseases they control/treat also:

bacillus-amyloliquefaciens.txt:phoma
bacillus-subtillis.txt:phoma
daconil.txt:phoma
thiomyl.txt:phoma
 

ABCarve

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I am going to be using Subdue to try and treat it this year. I gave one dose last year, but later in the season. This year I will be treating them in a couple weeks once they have all started to leaf out. I'll keep this thread updated.
I've tried Subdue in conjunction with Clearys as a spring drench and all of the above....to no avail. Last year was my best growing season for the wilting second flush of growth.I had just a few tip turn black. I'm going to do a defoliation this year because last years partial defoliation seemed to help. Infected leaves just dry up and fall off anyway. I have nothing to lose. I'll let you know how I make out.
 

Lars Grimm

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I've tried Subdue in conjunction with Clearys as a spring drench and all of the above....to no avail. Last year was my best growing season for the wilting second flush of growth.I had just a few tip turn black. I'm going to do a defoliation this year because last years partial defoliation seemed to help. Infected leaves just dry up and fall off anyway. I have nothing to lose. I'll let you know how I make out.
Interesting. I've thought about trying to not do any cut backs to see if they can just grow through it.
 

ABCarve

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Interesting. I've thought about trying to not do any cut backs to see if they can just grow through it.
Tried it. My first flush comes out great but slowly gets yellow and ugly. New buds at the base of the leaf turn black. Cutting it back forces those buds to grow. The first flush is infected and will infect the second. Last year I cut most of them off and it seemed to help which is why I gonna cut all of them off sooner. I’m not sure there is a cure. I’ve been struggling with this for 7-8 years now. It doesn’t seem to impact the health but really slows down the development process.
 

Lars Grimm

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Tried it. My first flush comes out great but slowly gets yellow and ugly. New buds at the base of the leaf turn black. Cutting it back forces those buds to grow. The first flush is infected and will infect the second. Last year I cut most of them off and it seemed to help which is why I gonna cut all of them off sooner. I’m not sure there is a cure. I’ve been struggling with this for 7-8 years now. It doesn’t seem to impact the health but really slows down the development process.
Did you do a root drench, foliar spray, or both with Subdue?
 

ABCarve

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Did you do a root drench, foliar spray, or both with Subdue?
Subdue is a root drench and can only be used twice per season. I immerse pot and all for a 1/2 hour soak. It can be used with liquid Clearys in the mix. Subdue is not for foliage. I haven’t used it for two seasons. Pricey stuff and a lifetime supply for the club. It’s measured in drops per gallon.
 

Lars Grimm

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Subdue is a root drench and can only be used twice per season. I immerse pot and all for a 1/2 hour soak. It can be used with liquid Clearys in the mix. Subdue is not for foliage. I haven’t used it for two seasons. Pricey stuff and a lifetime supply for the club. It’s measured in drops per gallon.
It looks like in the label you can use it for both drench and foliar spray. Not sure the foliar drench is helpful as I assume it is a systemic, rather than topical, infection.

 

ABCarve

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It looks like in the label you can use it for both drench and foliar spray. Not sure the foliar drench is helpful as I assume it is a systemic, rather than topical, infection.

Yes this is true. I don’t see it as helpful as most of the foliar treatments. Subdue is powerful nasty stuff and seems to be mostly used for pseudomonas and root problems. I’m at a loss to actually say which treatments have helped as it seems none have curtailed it.
 
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