Fig tree issues
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Fig tree issues
Posted by RebelTeacher on May 9, 2023 at 11:00 pmWhat in the world is this stuff on my fig tree? When you touch it, it blows away like powder. Not many leaves have come back since the late freeze here.
Bountifulblackberries replied 1 year, 4 months ago 11 Members · 11 Replies -
11 Replies
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https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/insects/preventing-ambrosia-beetles.htm
Your plant froze, and that is the damage that is there.
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All of mine here in coastal AL (zone 8b) have the same thing and are barely putting on any new leaves. I know some of the branches are dead as the wood looks dark and has absolutely no green growth. I did lose a couple of my 4 yr old prized fig trees and 2 others came back from the roots. The smaller trees were covered but my 3 large, much older trees were not.
I talked to a Fig Pro about how mine have leafed out/died back 6 times since fall (October) when they lost their leaves. Even the frigid Christmas Freeze didn’t do as much damage to them as the March 20th freeze. He said it was the sudden drastic drop in temps (greater than a 40 degree drop in temps) that caused all the damage in March PLUS the wind chill temp of 21(F) that froze them. Fig trees do not like sudden drastic drops in temps and I pray they survive. I have already pruned back some of the branches to where there was green (cadmium layer) but had to prune back even more this week as they seem to keep dying back. Not all the limbs, just a few but it is sad to see such big, beautiful VERY PRODUCTIVE fig trees dying. I lost all my blueberries, wild huckleberries, dew berries & blackberries along with my peaches & pears (that had already set fruit) and now I don’t see having any figs this year either. I am even fighting Fire Blight on my pear trees and my poor pomegranate tree that actually had blooms a month ago seems to be struggling as all the leaves have suddenly turned yellow. Could be all the torrential rains we’ve been having, but I’ve not seen any insect(s) or damage or the cooler than normal temps for our area. I’m just shaking my head at all the loss of fruit harvests this year AND the loss of my fruit trees!
Just this afternoon we had 4.5 inches of rain in less than an hour and more rain predicted every day this week. -
Looking at the pictures only it’s hard to tell, but what first comes to mind is a fungus or mildew. Caused by flat air…. Crappy weather. What do you think?
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Are they all over the trunk and branches? It could be tree borers.. they got to two of our mulberries this year. Thousands of those little sawdust sticks. It was the tree borer boring it’s way out.. (not organic) but you can try dial bar soap tied to the center of the trunk and let it rain down the bark.
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🌺Aloha
Probably the Exotic Ambrosia Beetle Black stem Borer Xylosandrus germanus
They burrowed once into mainly ornamental trees but have become more common among fruit and nut trees. Early signs are sawdust toothpicks on your main body and branches. The tree eventually dies back because the female tunnel into the tree to propagate and cultivate a fungal garden in the tree. It’s the female that carry fugal spores and once inside she produces food for the larvae she lays in the trees.
They are most active in spring. Also some flood stressed trees emit ethanol and can cause them to get attacked by this beetle. This beetle is highly attracted to ethanol so you could put out ethanol traps to monitor them to see the intensity in your area. Your tree might look healthy but it could be not healthy and that’s why it’s been attacked.
Permethrin and bifenthrin-based insecticides are most affective but not 100%. Synthetics are not affective. Trees should be treated before attacks. After treatment may not work.
Sadly the best solution so you don’t spread the beetles to your other trees or the fungus symbionts is to remove and destroy it. You know your tree. Take real close look at your trees before you just dig it up. If you can cut branches that are affected and remove as much as possible if it’s not the main body you could try that. Times it’s best to get rid of an badly affected tree as to not spear a problem though.
The Ambrosia Beetle has become a real pest in the whole of the southern states and most active in March – April in
Illinois-Maryland-Missouri-North Carolina-Ohio-Tennessee-Virginia
Hope this helped
God bless
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🌺🌋Aloha
It could be tree stress causing some spore spread brought by from people or animals that had rubbed up against it from another area. Always wash your tools with alcohol especially around wooded trees. The stress of a tree can causes just like humans an immune system deficient response also and may have come from the change of temperatures. Like when we get a cold when the season changes. It can also happen from drought to to much rain. I have that issue here some seasons. Those powder straws I call them happens to one tree I had that explodes and caused the spores that spread to other parts of the tree. I did do a tree graft test on it to see when I cut into the trunk if it may be wood decomposition also. Thank the good Lord it wasn’t or I would have removed it. You can spray it down with fresh milk or vinegar, but don’t touch them as you may be spreading it. You can always check the health of your trees when you do pruning. The branches tell ya a lot about your trees health especially if you have black and brown veining.
My grandfather would every spring wrap copper wire around the one year old fruit tree trunks of every tree loosely. He would leave one end up like an antenna free and then wrap it around three times loosely and run the other end into the soil. He did it to every mango, lychee, cherry, fig, lemon, and orange tree. He did it to every hard wood tree once and left it alone. Eventually the tree will swallow up the copper wired but the antenna and the ground end would still be exposed. This never killed his trees even though a young me thought he was crazy for strangling his tress. 😉He never had any trunk or base fungus or disease ever. His generation always did this and at times drove a couple of nails into the trunks also. It was like science being around him. In fact he had the best trees in his yard. So awesome UH of Hawaii always came to cut branches off his trees to graft and propagate to keep his stock. He propagated and made new variation of many mango and lychee trees in Hawaii and never took credit for them but they still thrive till this day. He was a blessing to growers and farmers. More over he was the best grandfather who passed on wisdom and knowledge of growing to my young self that I could never have gotten going to any school to learn.
I hope this helps. God has a plan to prosper you so you speak life into that blessed tree and claim it’s abundance for the kingdom. Amen🥰
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What you have is tree borers. We’ve had several fruit trees (pear, peach, nectarine, plum) die over that last couple of years and have several more that are currently infected. We’ve done extensive research for a treatment. There doesn’t seem to be anything that positively works once infected. Our infected trees usually died within a couple of years (or less). We’ve tried to organically treat infected trees with BT and neem without any success. Some research suggests that an otherwise very healthy tree is less likely to get infected. So, we’ve intensified our watering, feeding, and spraying. Maybe someone in the Freesteading community has found something that works.
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Oh No! Ambrosia beetles. I don’t know if you can save the roots by cutting the trunk below the toothpicks. If there are any healthy branches, see if you can cut them off and root them.. I have a man spray my fruit trees with permethrin in late February or early March (zone 7b)
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<div>https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/granulate-asian-ambrosia-beetle-1</div><div>
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Ambrosia Beetle Pests of Nursery and Landscape Trees
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