Copper Fungicide & Juniper Blight

[We're all Mad Here...🎩]

Has anybody ever willingly done this? I'm in an odd position where I don't want these 4 procumbens by any of my garden so I am seeing what happens. They're off on my retaining wall so who knows...anybfeedback or experience or scolding welcome.

Chris

 

[We're all Mad Here...🎩]

Time warp back to '97

Phomopsis Tip Blight of Juniper

hortnews.extension.iastate.edu

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I use copper sulphate on my junipers sometimes.
But.. I believe tip blight is rare. Most of the times I saw dying tips it was caused by root issues caused by bad watering.

True blight will show fruiting bodies or dots on the center of the foliage scales. If those aren't there, it's probably something else.
I'm even suspecting tip blight to be a naturally present degrading fungus that only attacks tips that are already dead or in a dying stage because blight also happens to occur on the compost heap where healthy branches go after they've been cut off. I can't back that up with literature, only by observations.

It seems that every time someone mentions tip blight on junipers, there seems to be some history of repotting or root cutting or over/underwatering and it seems that when left untreated it almost never returns the next year. That makes me question the cause and effect situation and the disease as a whole.

But copper sulphate is safe to use and if you think it'll help, I have nothing against that. It doesn't seem to hurt the trees at all and when used apropriately, it also doesn't hurt anything else.

 

[We're all Mad Here...🎩]

I use copper sulphate on my junipers sometimes.
But.. I believe tip blight is rare. Most of the times I saw dying tips it was caused by root issues caused by bad watering.

True blight will show fruiting bodies or dots on the center of the foliage scales. If those aren't there, it's probably something else.
I'm even suspecting tip blight to be a naturally present degrading fungus that only attacks tips that are already dead or in a dying stage because blight also happens to occur on the compost heap where healthy branches go after they've been cut off. I can't back that up with literature, only by observations.

It seems that every time someone mentions tip blight on junipers, there seems to be some history of repotting or root cutting or over/underwatering and it seems that when left untreated it almost never returns the next year. That makes me question the cause and effect situation and the disease as a whole.

But copper sulphate is safe to use and if you think it'll help, I have nothing against that. It doesn't seem to hurt the trees at all and when used apropriately, it also doesn't hurt anything else.

Thanks for your kind response. I do believe I see some of the fruiting bodies, which is what scares me. Your intuition about repotting watering makes so much sense is just that I'm literally just like scared touch these things for fear of transmission to my other plants. I suppose by this time the wind would have carried the spores of that was nature's path...? I've also been reading about the concept where juniper may possess an ability to protect and ward this off at times, but this would seem more likely to me perhaps in old trees, not captive potted plants.

That these trees might be short on oxygen due to needing a repot and further suffering from watering restring that o2 is something I'll remedy here to see where it takes me.

Photo is an example, the dots aren't everywhere, but this is what I see, not sure which stain of blight it is of course, another problem I read makes it more difficult! [Phomosis?] Guess I need to get in there and chop out any suspected branches and stop being a whimp...



Cheers mate,
Chris

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Those are the spots I'm talking about.
But they seem to be present on last years foliar scales on the twigs, not on the tips of the young foliage, right? Those twig scales tend to have a short shelf life. Do you experience dying tips on those twigs? If not, I don't think you need to treat anything.

From what I can see, your plant is bursting with life and it seems pretty healthy.

You're right about the spores, they should be everywhere right now since the fungal bodies are fruiting. But again, if they don't damage healthy stuff.. Why put effort in treating something that doesn't hurt the plant?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

And because I see these fruiting bodies on a daily basis without any damage to this years foliage, and only occurring on dead or dying weak stuff.. I start to believe that it's commensal. Meaning it just lives there and serves some elusive purpose, and only becomes a problem when the health is compromised..

 

[We're all Mad Here...🎩]

When I bought these plants, the whole area the nursery had them had dead branches, spots, ends, etc., but I see where you're going. I did cut off some dead areas, its just the super dead gray areas in-between growth and the off green on these plants, which may be due to suffocation or inability to uptake nutrients?

These were the day i got them, the HDR photos are really helping make them look greener...will take a few new ones here today of the other issues I'm discussing!