I had a lime tree nearly as bad as that a few months ago and it is now really healthy so there is hope! There is brown scale on the limbs and as bad a case of sooty mould I have seen (causual link). You need to get rid of the scale and the mould so the plant needs a good bath. Warm to hot water with a dash of dishwashing detergent and clean the scale off the limbs and undersides of the leaves (I use a green nylon scourer) then do the same for the mould (or cut it off but then you won’t have anything left!). Just spraying for both probably won’t help in time to save the tree. When you’ve cleaned it up keep an eye on it and when you see scale (or aphids etc) apply a horticultural oil (PestOil etc) or (my preference) Neem oil.
CartographerUpbeat61
It’s still fruiting well . Seek out treatment for sooty mould and scale. Probably a cut back will help . You’ll need to spray it a few times until it clears up . But those lemons look pretty good to me!
CrumbyCardiologist
It’s sooty mould and scale. You need to stop the ants first, who bring the scale and cause this problem. Once you’ve got rid of the ants, spray some white oil to kill the scale. Don’t spray it during the middle of the day when it’s hot, wait until late afternoon.
You’ll probably need to do this again in a couple of weeks. Once the scale is dead, you should be able to spray the sooty mould off with a hose. I would bin any super bad leaves.
thisshitstopstoday
Treat for ants. Treat for the scale and you probably need a combination of pest oil and systematic scale killing chemical diluted and applied to roots.
SuccessfulDesigner82
Black spot/sooty mould. You’ll need to remove all fruit, and prune off all contaminated leaves, remove any leaf litter ect from the base of the tree. Treat and then make sure not to reinfect by keeping leaf letter away and giving a good look over every now and aging to catch it quicker if it ever pops up again.
Aqueousbubbahub
I would start by spraying the leaves with a dish soap and water mixture, letting it sit and hosing it off to get some of that sooty mould off. Then inspect the leaves closer to see what type of sap sucking critters are feasting on the plant. After that probably some kind of pest oil depending on what the pest is.
8 Comments
Looks kinda like sooty mold [https://www.yates.com.au/garden-hub/sooty-mould/](https://www.yates.com.au/garden-hub/sooty-mould/)
I had a lime tree nearly as bad as that a few months ago and it is now really healthy so there is hope! There is brown scale on the limbs and as bad a case of sooty mould I have seen (causual link). You need to get rid of the scale and the mould so the plant needs a good bath. Warm to hot water with a dash of dishwashing detergent and clean the scale off the limbs and undersides of the leaves (I use a green nylon scourer) then do the same for the mould (or cut it off but then you won’t have anything left!). Just spraying for both probably won’t help in time to save the tree. When you’ve cleaned it up keep an eye on it and when you see scale (or aphids etc) apply a horticultural oil (PestOil etc) or (my preference) Neem oil.
It’s still fruiting well . Seek out treatment for sooty mould and scale. Probably a cut back will help . You’ll need to spray it a few times until it clears up . But those lemons look pretty good to me!
It’s sooty mould and scale. You need to stop the ants first, who bring the scale and cause this problem. Once you’ve got rid of the ants, spray some white oil to kill the scale. Don’t spray it during the middle of the day when it’s hot, wait until late afternoon.
You’ll probably need to do this again in a couple of weeks. Once the scale is dead, you should be able to spray the sooty mould off with a hose. I would bin any super bad leaves.
Treat for ants.
Treat for the scale and you probably need a combination of pest oil and systematic scale killing chemical diluted and applied to roots.
Black spot/sooty mould. You’ll need to remove all fruit, and prune off all contaminated leaves, remove any leaf litter ect from the base of the tree. Treat and then make sure not to reinfect by keeping leaf letter away and giving a good look over every now and aging to catch it quicker if it ever pops up again.
I would start by spraying the leaves with a dish soap and water mixture, letting it sit and hosing it off to get some of that sooty mould off. Then inspect the leaves closer to see what type of sap sucking critters are feasting on the plant. After that probably some kind of pest oil depending on what the pest is.
Spray with copper it will sort it out