Name: david watson new port richey (Zone 9b) love to grow unique and interesting
My Black Sapote is in trouble. I have no idea what is wrong as I have tested the soil and it is okay, it is definitely not winter here in Florida, and no where on the internet I can find an answer to this. The leaves get black spots underneath, looks like a bacteria or fungus, the leaf turns all black or parts of it turn black and it dies off. Now branches are starting to die back as well. I have no idea.
I am including pictures for people to look at. It is a 4 year old tree and has been fine up till now.
Name: Elaine Sarasota, Fl The one constant in life is change
David, it's a risky idea to include your e-mail address on a public forum. You really should edit that out of your post above. If you or we want to communicate privately, this site has what we call "Tree Mail" which you can access by clicking on the little envelope icon in the blue sidebar at left. In any case you will be notified by the site whenever anybody replies to your thread.
Could you please show us a picture of the whole tree as well? Is it in a pot or in the ground? How big is it and how long since you planted it?
IF it's in the ground, did you amend before planting with anything? IF in a pot, what kind of potting soil did you use? What fertilizer?
Have you tested your irrigation water to see what the pH is? If it is well water, it could be quite high (alkaline) and that can affect a lot of plants in their ability to take up nutrients.
It looks to me as if you have more than one problem going on there - the leaves are very yellow, which indicates a nutrient deficiency and when a tree is stressed it often is invaded by pests as a secondary thing.
Elaine
"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." –Winston Churchill
Name: Carol Roberts Huntington Beach, CA (Zone 10b) Sunset 24
to NGA. You have all my sympathy. That poor tree/plant/whatever. The people around here will find an answer and its a fascinating process to watch, so don't go away. I'm no help a'tall - don't know a thing about it except what I learn here.
Can't complain too loud about how the ball bounces when I'm the one who dropped it.
Hi David. Chasing around the internet, it finally dawned on me to stop looking for diseases/fungal infections of Diospyros nigra and instead look at the whole persimmon family.
to NGA. You have all my sympathy. That poor tree/plant/whatever. The people around here will find an answer and its a fascinating process to watch, so don't go away. I'm no help a'tall - don't know a thing about it except what I learn here.
