I must thank you, Jim, for allowing me to do this investigation myself....this bacteria is absolutely fascinating. I have a background in microbiology; I was research assistant to the Distinguished Chair in Agriculture at VA Tech for years until simultaneously he moved to another university and I became pregnant with my little kiddo. I cherished him dearly; he also never just gave me the answer...and thus I learned so much from him.
This bacteria has some truly remarkable weapons...enzymes that are like soldiers who are sent to destroy the plant's first defenses.... enzymes who are produced only in certain manners under certain conditions...i.e. temperature, colonization numbers, oxygen presence, etc. And there's so much more sophistication to this tiny little cell than we'd ever appreciate.
Here is my plan of attack and tell me if you approve. The plant is mounted to a removable piece of pecky cypress board...I will remove the entire mount. Then, remove those black spots with a sterilized exacto knife...and isolate & treat the entire plant with a copper based treatment. I did read an interesting article about the use of salicylic acid on Erwinia, which is a popular and easily obtainable acne/toe fungus treatment, so I think I may try copper on one leaf, and weak salicylic acid solution on the other, just for fun.
This isn't a valuable plant, but the experimentation is the thrilling bit for me. This isn't a properly designed experiment by any means, either. But I care not!
