On Wed, 7 Apr 2004 08:50:02 -0700, Allen wrote:

(Mart Verstappen) wrote in message news:LISTSERV%
...
On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 06:07:26 -0700, Allen wrote:

(Billy M. Rhodes) wrote in message
...
In a message dated 4/4/2004 11:40:25 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:

I just rescued a juniper of some kind from a landscaping place ...
it
was a freebie, looking a little funky ... after repotting it and
trimming off the brown crunchy parts I noticed that the green parts
have a fine black stuff on the bark mostly. Looks like mold maybe?
Any
idea what this stuff is and how I can treat it?

The "black stuff" probably is a mold and means the tree was being
kept
too
wet without enough light. You can use an old soft tooth brush to
remove
the
"black stuff" but you will need to give the plant more light and less
water to
keep it off.

Billy on the Florida Space Coast

Thanks for giving it a name, Billy ! I've done some research on
'sooty mold' and found that it's actually living on honeydew and the
only way it hurts the plant is when it covers the green so it can't
get any light. Since there are no honeydew producing critters that
like junipers, i think we can assume it was from the trees overhead.
I've got it out in the light, done my usual cleanup, cut off all the
brown parts and twiggy growth, repotted it in my evergreen mix with
just a little root picking and some 'transplant starter' food. I'm
told the mold should die and flake off as soon as there's no more food
for it. What do you think ?


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Hi Allen,
The "Black Stuff" is more then likely some type of Mould.
Moulds being Fungi, they need 3 conditions in order to live, feed and
multiply. These are 1. a host to live on, 2.a food source and
3.favourable
conditions in regards to temperature and moisture. Take one of these
factors away and the fungi will not be able to live.

In your case, their could be more then one reason for this mould.
The fungus could have developped on the Jun. in the landscape place.
Having
the tree now at your place there is chance that the mould will simply
disappear because the favourable conditions have changed.
Quite often, moulds will develop on sugary waste products from certain
insects such as Scale, Hoppers, white fly etc.Just remember that the
waste
is the host, not neccesarily your tree. So in this case you will need an
insecticide to get rid of the fungus. Makes sense?

As the good old tooth brush gives instant visual result it is also a good
tool to spread fungi to other parts of the tree or other plants.

I have found that the early signs of most fungi can be killed by exposure
to UV rays. UV is not for sale in a can from the shop, but comes very
cheap
everyday from that lovely big bright sun. Put the tree in full sun for 30
minutes and keep an eye on the fungus. You might have to repeat this for
a
few days. Works great on Powdery mildew (Oaks can be succeptible to this)

However, heavy infestations might need to be cleaned up with a fungicide.

Hope this is of help

Mart


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THanks Mart ! Great info ... i fully agree with you, so you must be
right !
I've been removing the mildew with pressurized water. I support the
branch with my hand so it's not whipped around, but the black is
coming right off after the plant has been in mostly full sun for 6
days. The red dots i saw, i originally thought were mites, but
they're not moving ! I took a couple of cut off branches and put them
in a jar, then examined them and they look like rust or something !
There's not much of it left, i've pretty much amputated the branches
that had it. What do you think ?

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Hi allen, looks you are on the right track. The red residue are probably
the dead remains of the fungi. Be interesting to hear at some stage if you
have eliminated it completely and hopefully you won't get re-infected.
Regards
mart

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