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Phytophthora patch canker, foot rot and fruit rot

Wet dark patches on the trunk bark ooze reddish brown gum, seedlings die back, and fruits get water soaked spots that turn brown, crack and rot.

Phytophthora palmivora Water mold Fact sheet
Phytophthora fruit rot on papaya: fruit rotting on the tree
Photo: Scot Nelson from Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Crops it strikes

Duryan Durian Langka Jackfruit Papaya Lansones Lanzones Sapodilla Chico

What you see

RottingLarge dead patchesWilting

When to act

After heavy rain, check trunks near the ground and the branch forks for wet dark patches that ooze reddish gum, and young fruit for water soaked spots. Act on the first patch: scrape it to clean wood and treat it, and pick rotting fruit at once.

What to spray

Active ingredients only, never brands. The FRAC group tells how it works: switch to a different group next time, so the disease does not learn to survive it. Spray only when the damage is worth the cost, and only with products registered with the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority for your crop. Follow the label. The Shopee and Lazada links only show who sells something with that active ingredient, not a recommendation of any seller or product.

Resistance: Water molds learn to resist metalaxyl (group 4) quickly when it is used alone. Mix or rotate it with copper, fosetyl (P07), dimethomorph (40) or fluopicolide (43).

How to prevent it

  • Plant on well drained ground or on mounds, and dig drains so water never stands around the trunk.
  • Keep mulch, weeds and soil a hand away from the trunk base, and avoid wounding the trunk with tools.
  • Scrape bark patches to clean wood in dry weather and paint the wound with copper paste. Burn the scrapings.
  • Prune low branches and remove fruit near the ground. Rain splash from the soil carries the water mold up.
  • Pick and bury rotting and fallen fruit, and do not plant papaya next to cacao or durian blocks that have the disease.
  • Plant seedlings grafted high on tolerant rootstocks and raised in clean, well drained nursery soil.

Natural enemies and biological help

  • Trichoderma mixed into compost around the root zone can hold soil water molds down. It helps, but it does not cure trunk cankers.

Not sure it is this one?

Many diseases look alike. Send a photo to Anee, the smart farm technician in anee.io. She reads it with your crop, its age and the weather, and tells you what it most likely is and what to do first. In Tagalog or English.

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