 Plant Diseases in Arkansas
Leaf Spot of Redtip Photinia
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Dr. Steve Vann - Extension Urban Plant
Pathologist
Now the Redtip Photinia is a very common landscape
ornamental. And most people use it as a privacy screen as you see here. It
makes a nice, dense barrier between the next-door neighbor’s. However it is
very susceptible to a fungus disease.
This disease is probably the major reason that the
cooperative extension service no longer recommends this plant in the landscape.
This particular disease is going to affect the leaves
primarily. It causes a leaf spot. Now, initially that spot will be a very
small diameter spot. It may be very inconspicuous at first but it progresses
very rapidly. Before you know it, large areas may be affected by this spot. And
this particular spot, which is cause by a specific fungus, causes those leaves
to fall off. And this is where the damage actually becomes obvious, when those
leaves start to drop.
As the fungus progresses, it will cause large areas of the
shrub to die. The fungus spreads rapidly on the leaves usually by splashing
water and wind. It causes those leaves to fall off as you see here. The fungus
continues to survive on this dead tissue here. This is oftentimes a source for
the disease the following season. Raking these leaves up can be very useful to
minimize this disease for the next growing season.
Before we initiate control measures, we want to be sure
this is the disease that we’re concerned about. In order to do that, we would
need to collect an appropriate sample to bring into your local extension office
to have a qualified person to identify this particular disease.
To do that, what we normally recommend is taking your
pruning snips and cutting a piece of tissue that contains those spots, and
placing those into a plastic bag.
A sample of this type can be easily transported to your
local extension office to have someone examine that tissue and give you an
accurate diagnosis.
Now this particular fungus will also attack our Indian
Hawthorne, or Raphiolepsis, but to a much lesser extent compared to the redtip.
Of course a lot of people select the redtip primarily
because of that nice red foliage that we see in the springtime. That’s one of
the desirable characteristics for this particular landscape ornamental. But
again it’s very susceptible to this particular fungus disease.
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To learn more,
contact your county Extension agent, and follow the links in this section.
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