Cleaning lady

[garycm]

One of my mango tree's has strange warts. Half of the tree has died and there are new branches growing out of the warts. My Thai neighbour says it is a cancer and all I can do it cut the tree. Google says bacterial cankers. Don't know what that means. Can I still safe the tree?

Edited June 16, 2010 by garycm

[harveyBKK]

try cutting off all the branches with cankers as a junction to the next healthy branch and see what happens. If they go away, you saved it. if they don't, cut it down. Kind of like modern day cancer treatment, it's shit, but hey, it's all they got.

[cmsally]

Those are parasitic plants and they feed off the tree. I don't know how they first get there, maybe a seed deposited by birds. They can grow on a lot of trees. We have had them on Mango, Rose Apple and Jackfruit trees. They don't seem to grow on Longan or Lychee If you cut off the branch beneath where they grow they don't grow back. But you may of course get new ones growing in other parts of the tree. You just have to be vigilant and remove them as they appear. It doesn't mean the tree is diseased because they appear.

[garycm]

Those are parasitic plants and they feed off the tree. I don't know how they first get there, maybe a seed deposited by birds. They can grow on a lot of trees. We have had them on Mango, Rose Apple and Jackfruit trees. They don't seem to grow on Longan or Lychee If you cut off the branch beneath where they grow they don't grow back. But you may of course get new ones growing in other parts of the tree. You just have to be vigilant and remove them as they appear. It doesn't mean the tree is diseased because they appear.

I am very happy with your answer. My neighbour was talking about seeds and birds but it sounded weird because of his English. I know what to do now. Thanks

[harveyBKK]

what am i, chopped liver?

[drtreelove]

I don't know the specific parasitic plant that CMSally mentions, but it may very well be, I respect her experience. To me it looks like 'crown gall', a bacterial canker, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Search 'crown gall disease in plants'. But a definitive diagnosis would be needed to confirm (visual and a tissue lab analysis at MaeJo U or CMU plant pathology dept.) If it's an important tree to you then it may be worth it, just to know what you are dealing with, before you start cutting.

If it is crown gall, it does not necessarily kill the tree, or even the branch that is infected. I've seen trees live for many years with crown gall infections. The dieback that you described may or may not be caused by the disease. If the dieback is consistently on portions of the tree above or beyond the point where the cankers (or paratisites) are located, then it is related; but if the dieback is unrelated to the cankers, then the dieback may be due to other factors, like drought stress or root defects. Cutting out the infected portions may or may not be necessary. don

[sbk]

Could be a parasite, I don't see any leaves growing out of it but then its kind of hard to tell -- if you see small roots and a leaf or two growing out of it then its definitely a parasite and must be cut off, including all roots. I've seen those parasites strangle entire trees.

[garycm]

what am i, chopped liver?

sorry for that. Thank you for your help

[garycm]

Could be a parasite, I don't see any leaves growing out of it but then its kind of hard to tell -- if you see small roots and a leaf or two growing out of it then its definitely a parasite and must be cut off, including all roots. I've seen those parasites strangle entire trees.

new branches are growing out of them. And they are not mango so it is a parasite. Chop, chop and hope for the best. Thank you all for the advise.

[cmsally]

It could be a gall (must admit I know pretty much nothing about those), so I'm not sure if galls produce leaves.

But the one in the picture is definitely what I have seen and the light green leaves in the foreground are the leaves it produces. Shouldn't kill the tree but will make it less healthy if you leave them on.

[xen]

My immediate thought was Gall wasp causing those swellings except i am unsure that they are a problem to Mango trees. They are a problem to Citrus here in the warmer areas of coastal Australia so it may have crossed over or be caused by a similar wasp . It can cause dieback of the branches and retard fruiting . The swellings are caused when the female wasp lays her eggs between the bark and wood of the stem. Prune out the infected wood and to cut out and destroy the galls containing the eggs. Don't leave the galls laying around the base of the tree tree when you prune and make sure you disinfect your pruning tools after each cut.

[drtreelove]

It could be a gall (must admit I know pretty much nothing about those), so I'm not sure if galls produce leaves.

But the one in the picture is definitely what I have seen and the light green leaves in the foreground are the leaves it produces. Shouldn't kill the tree but will make it less healthy if you leave them on.

I didn't recognize the leaves of the parasite from the photo, but if that is what it is then I have another possible alternative approach, rather than cutting out major branches.

We now treat mistletoe infection in trees with injection of a growth regulator that causes the absission layer to form and the leaves to drop. No leaves, no photosynthesis for the parasitic plant, and it can't survive for long. But before this new generation growth regulator treatment was developed, we used to treat a mistletoe infection by cutting off all the vegetative growth and covering the basal area with black plastic taped in place. After a year or so without light availability to regenerate vegetative growth and photosynthesis, the parasitic plant would die in that specific location on the tree. Every infection site on the tree would have to be treated in the same way. If we got to it early enough, before all the conductive tissue on that infection site was destroyed and before dieback occurred, the limb would resume normal conduction and return to health.

I don't know if this local parasitic plant can be controlled in the same way, but it's worth consideration if it could save hacking up the tree to remove infected portions.

[sbk]

Leaving it on I am afraid is not an option, these can and will kill your tree. I've never had to cover the branch with black plastic when removing parasitical plants tho...

Biggest problem I have is the continued re-parasitizing of the tree (is that a word?) by new ones, presumably planted in bird poop on the tree. Its a constant battle and requires vigilance if I want to make sure the tree will stay strong and healthy (but maybe its more prevalent down south, I am afraid I don't know that much about this for up north--just know you really have to make sure these don't overrun your tree)