Fig Rust Question

W

wyanokie

Well-known member
I'm a newer grower (last year was my first full year) and I've been thinking about my collection. I've got some nice heirloom fig trees in pots, and a few nice ones I want to put in ground next year.

My only in-ground fig tree so far is a Pananas Purple. It's a delicious Mt. Etna type fig, but it gets really bad fig rust at the end of the season when we get rainy spells. Brown leaves, defoliated, etc. I've done a little research on fig rust and it seems that it can be spread from tree to tree, but it seems that not many growers worry too much about it in terms of overall health of the tree or productivity.

My question for the group: I've been considering culling the Pananas Purple so that the rust doesn't spread to other in ground (or potted) trees, especially the heirlooms. Would this be a wise move, or is it way overboard?

Thanks for any help you can offer!
 
Does the tree ripen most of its figs before the rust defoliates the tree? If so I wouldn't worry to much about it.

Fortunately, I've found the treatment is simple.
I spray the leaves top and bottom with copper and/or sulfur once or twice during the summer and rust is no longer even something I think about. A few trees trees do still get some spots but it's so late it doesn't matter. For reference I live in the hot humid Mid-Atlantic and we don't start getting too rainy until September.
 
I don't worry about the rust too much.
Here in North Georgia it's inevitably going to happen near the end of the season.
Happens to a lot of trees, not just certain ones.
When it first starts you can carefully remove the leaves that start getting it, that will help control it to a degree.
But...eventually it just gets to the point I let it go.
If your Etna in ground is established...and does well throughout the summer...I'd leave it and enjoy it.
 
An observation we have had with rust is the trees tend to have problems with it if stressed. Our in ground trees rarely get it. But if you heat and drought stress a potted tree the it’s get wet especially wet and cool rust appears. Sulphur and copper are our choice too as a treatment. And don’t worry about spreading, as soon as the tree looses the leaves it kind of like a rust reset each season.
Rust is a fungal disease. Fungal spores are everywhere getting rid of one tree won’t change the possibility of rust on other trees.
Look at it this way where did the rust come from that infected the first tree? It just exists in nature.
Late in the season here as it’s about time to drop leaves we tend to start seeing rust, by then it makes no difference to the trees.
 
wyanokie said:
I've been considering culling the Pananas Purple so that the rust
Click to expand...
The rust are caused by fungi. There are multiple species, which can vary by location. The rusts are transported by mites, of which there are also multiple species and sizes that can vary by location. One of them though is the microscopic fig rust mite which collectors inadvertently transfer to each other. They are carriers of a symbiotic rust that they are born with.

The good news is that treating your plants with water-disbursable elemental sulfur will suppress and occasionally eliminate the mites and fungi. There are a few consumer brands available. I am using a licensed product called Thiolux. The most effective time to spray is just before bud break in the early Spring and after leaf drop in the Fall. For bad infestations you can spray between the Spring and main crop.
 
Charlie Dodgson said:
The rust are caused by fungi. There are multiple species, which can vary by location. The rusts are transported by mites, of which there are also multiple species and sizes that can vary by location. One of them though is the microscopic fig rust mite which collectors inadvertently transfer to each other. They are carriers of a symbiotic rust that they are born with.

The good news is that treating your plants with water-disbursable elemental sulfur will suppress and occasionally eliminate the mites and fungi. There are a few consumer brands available. I am using a licensed product called Thiolux. The most effective time to spray is just before bud break in the early Spring and after leaf drop in the Fall. For bad infestations you can spray between the Spring and main crop.
Click to expand...
Here it is mainly spread by spores and really nothing to worry about.
 
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