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Anthracnose: How to Identify, Control, and Prevent Anthracnose | The Old Farmer's Almanac

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Anthracnose

Fungal anthracnose attacks these young grapevine leaves.

Photo Credit
Photo by CSIRO ScienceImage via Wikimedia Commons
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How to Identify and Control Anthracnose

Pest Type
Plant Diseases
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What is anthracnose? This fungal disease affects many plants, including vegetables, fruits, and trees. It causes dark, sunken lesions on leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits. It also attacks developing shoots and expanding leaves. It can spread very quickly during rainy seasons.

Anthracnose is a general term for a variety of diseases that affect plants in similar ways. Anthracnose is especially known for the damage that it can cause to trees. Anthracnose is caused by a fungus, and among vegetables, it attacks cucurbits.

Anthracnose can survive on infected plant debris and is very easily spread. Like rust, it thrives under moist and warm conditions and is often spread by watering.

Identification

How to Identify Anthracnose

  • On leaves, anthracnose generally appears first as small, irregular yellow or brown spots. These spots darken as they age and may also expand, covering the leaves.
  • On vegetables, it can affect any part of the plant.
  • On fruits, it produces small, dark, sunken spots, which may spread. In moist weather, pinkish spore masses form in the center of these spots. Eventually, the fruits will rot.
  • On trees, it can kill the tips of young twigs. It also attacks the young leaves, which develop brown spots and patches. It can also cause defoliation of the tree.

anthracnose-identification-disease.jpg

Photo Credit: Rutgers University. Anthracnose can affect many plants with its brown spots, including this cucumber leaf.

Control and Prevention

How to Control Anthracnose

  • Remove and destroy any infected plants in your garden. For trees, prune out the dead wood and destroy the infected leaves.
  • You can try spraying your plants with a copper-based fungicide, though be careful because copper can build up to toxic levels in the soil for earthworms and microbes. For trees, try a dormant spray of bordeaux mix.

Prevent Anthracnose

  • Plant resistant plants, or buy healthy transplants.
  • Plant your plants in well-drained soil. You can also enrich the soil with compost in order to help plants resist diseases.
  • Water your plants with a drip sprinkler, as opposed to an overhead sprinkler. Don’t touch the plants when they are wet.
  • Keep ripening fruits from touching the soil.
  • Remember to rotate your plants every 2 to 3 years.
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Comments

kim (not verified)

6 months 2 weeks ago

Will pruning affected trees and destroying the leaves be enough to prevent recurrence? I may missing it, but I don't see any information about how to prevent recurrence in trees? Lots of info on plants, but I don't anything preventative for large trees.
Thanks.

Does additional anthracnose treatments needed every year to large maple trees to prevent initial infection during the first year.

Removing infected leaves can help to stop its spread, but anthracnose can overwinter in twigs or other parts of the tree, so it’s unlikely that you would be able to get rid of it completely. Generally, anthracnose isn’t as big of an issue in trees as it is in smaller plants, so it’s often something that is just tolerated. However, if the tree seems to weaken and have a lot of leaf loss, fungicides can be used. Read more about that here: Anthracnose

Duah Boakye Ebenezer (not verified)

2 years 5 months ago

I work at TESYD Farms as T.O. and I have noticed that most of the young seedlings have their leaves with many dark spot looking like it has been sprayed with weedicide. Can that be anthracnose?.

racheal (not verified)

3 years 4 months ago

I have recently bought a mango tree and it has black regions on my branches.It doesn't seem to be effecting the leaves much yet . I'm not sure if its Anthracnose any help would do. I've also noticed broken leaves I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it.