Video:What Are Anthracnose and Leaf Spot Diseases?
with Henning von SchmelingAnthracnose and leaf spot diseases can do a lot of damage to the plants they afflict. This video from About.com will provide more information on anthracnose and leaf spot diseases.See Transcript
Transcript:What Are Anthracnose and Leaf Spot Diseases?
Hi, I'm Henning von Schmeling. I'm here at the Chattahoochee Nature Center for About.com, and we're going to be talking a little bit about what are anthracnose and leaf spot.
Identifying Anthracnose and Leaf Spot Diseases
Both of those are two very common fungal diseases that you can see on your plants in your garden and in woodland settings. They are caused by spores landing on the leaves and the little mushrooms and fungus growing on the leaves. Anthracnose can be seen in leaves curling up. Sometimes it looks a little bit like powdery mildew, a little white on it. Leaf spot is the same thing; leaf spot is typically formed by fungus but it can also be formed by an insect having bitten on that part of the leaf and then it shows a little dark ring. Both are fungus diseases.
Prevent Leaf Diseases by Keeping a Tidy Yard
They can, to a certain extent, be prevented by keeping a tidy yard. After the leaves drop in the fall, make sure that you remove them and replace them with fresh mulch, new mulch on top of it. The fungus actually stays as a spore in the leaf, on the ground, in the ground and then during the spring rains, when the water splashes back up onto the tree, its gets onto the foliage and spreads that way. So if you remove the infected leaf litter, you have much less of a chance of getting it back the next year. Leaf spot, the same thing. The cleaner you keep your yard, the better it is.
Allow Air Flow to Prevent Diseases
The other thing to eliminate some of these fungal diseases is to have good air flow. Removing underbrush, anything that prevents air from going under the tree, keeping it dry. A dogwood, for example, might get anthracnose in the shade and will exhibit worse effects from this disease than in the sun. In the sun, they are able to dry out, the spores cannot germinate. But in a shady situation, they are more likely to get affected by these diseases.
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