Sooty Mold on Lemon trees
That black sticky sooty mold on lemon trees and lemons looks awful but it is relatively easy to clear up.
What is sooty mold?
It is the end product of another problem with your lemon tree.
To have sooty mold the tree must have aphids or most likely scale insects living on the tree. These are sucking insects and they hook into the sap and feed off the goodness inside the tree. Then like all animals they have to excrete something and that something is honey dew a sweet, sticky substance.
Sooty mold fungus spores find this lovely, sweet, nutritious substance and grow quickly on it covering a large area in this black sooty mold which is not nice to look at but can be washed off fruit.
Now that we know what it is and what causes it we can fix it.
Quickest way is for regular sprays of All Seasons Spraying Oil. This non-toxic product smothers the insects so they can’t breathe and they die. It does the tree and fruit no harm as all. Regular sprays throughout the year will keep it at bay.
Something else that will help is to lightly prune the tree to allow lots of air movement through the tree at all times. This will discourage the insects in setting up home in the lemon tree.
What is sooty mold?
It is the end product of another problem with your lemon tree.
To have sooty mold the tree must have aphids or most likely scale insects living on the tree. These are sucking insects and they hook into the sap and feed off the goodness inside the tree. Then like all animals they have to excrete something and that something is honey dew a sweet, sticky substance.
Sooty mold fungus spores find this lovely, sweet, nutritious substance and grow quickly on it covering a large area in this black sooty mold which is not nice to look at but can be washed off fruit.
Now that we know what it is and what causes it we can fix it.
Quickest way is for regular sprays of All Seasons Spraying Oil. This non-toxic product smothers the insects so they can’t breathe and they die. It does the tree and fruit no harm as all. Regular sprays throughout the year will keep it at bay.
Something else that will help is to lightly prune the tree to allow lots of air movement through the tree at all times. This will discourage the insects in setting up home in the lemon tree.