Coffee trees under attack

[Brunolem]

Members who grow coffee trees may have had to deal with a nasty parasite...looks like a fungus...

It is white, with a rubbery texture, a bit like chewing gum.

It stays under the leaves or between the fruits when they grow...and it destroys them.

Thank you for letting me know how to deal efficiently with this little bastard, with minimum damage for the trees and the fruits.

[drtreelove]

I'm a coffee drinker, not a coffee grower, but I'm interested in plant health care.  I hope you get some experienced coffee growers to respond. 

 

I don't know coffee plants and problems, but I can't think of any plant pest or disease that fits your description, unless it's masses of mealy bugs, whitefly,  or powdery mildew. 

 

Post photos of your site, plants, and close ups of the signs you are seeing. 

 

Chiang Mai University has a coffee cultivation program and a research farm up on Doi Pui, in the Doi Suthep/Pui National Park. 

 

Do you see ants going up and down the stems into the foliar crown where the white masses are?  If so then that is a good sign it is an insect pest, like mealy bugs. They farm the bugs for the sweet secretions and protect them from predators. Control the ants with Tanglefoot or boric acid bait, and you will be one step toward controlling the pest. 

 

If you have a small number of small plants, consider wiping off the white masses with a rag, or with a cotton gloved hand to reduce the numbers. If you have a large number of plants or larger size plants, then you may have to find a chemical or botanical spray solution. 

 

Since you are posting in the organic forum, and since this is a food/beverage crop, you will want to consider a bio-rational, least toxic, organic approach. 

 

Control of an advanced pest infestation or disease infection is always a challenge, even with hard chemistry insecticides or fungicides. 

 

Once you get the active issue under control,  consideration for general purpose pest and disease preventive control is neem oil 70% (clarified hydrophobic extract). 

If you become certain it's a pest, and not a disease, then the more potent extract of neem, Azadirachtin is a good preventive if used in repeated applications throughout the growing season. 

 

Healthy plants growing in healthy, mineral balanced soil, with adequate soil organic matter content will resist pests and diseases. So consider the growing conditions, soil and water management as primary plant health care factors. 

 

http://www.casabrasilcoffees.com/learn/pests-and-diseases/

 

https://plantvillage.org/topics/coffee/infos

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coffee_diseases

[soidog2]

It is most likely a mealy bug, left untreated looks like you description.

Please post some clear pictures to verify, In my coffee trees I had to deal with this same problem and its not fun.

After endless searches I found this "ซาดิส" it is a neonicotiniod, Acetamiprid, available in Thailand.

Made for sap sucking insects, works extremely well. You need to thoroughly spray top and bottom and under leaves, especially at the joints where the bug tends to concentrate. You need to spray every 4/5 days, at least a month, to control a severe infestation.

 

Above said, please confirm for yourself it is a mealy bug infestation you are dealing with, before spraying.

 

As the good doctor told you above; if you are dealing with a limited number of trees you can achieve the same results just by patiently washing your trees with a light dish washing solution mixed with some mineral oil.

After you have it under control, initiate preventative measures, for a small number of trees, organic works fine.

 

Healthy coffee trees are vigorous growers, your job will be a lot easier if you prune them aggressively before starting

[drtreelove]

1 hour ago, soidog2 said:

It is most likely a mealy bug, left untreated looks like you description.

Please post some clear pictures to verify, In my coffee trees I had to deal with this same problem and its not fun.

After endless searches I found this "ซาดิส" it is a neonicotiniod, Acetamiprid, available in Thailand.

Made for sap sucking insects, works extremely well. You need to thoroughly spray top and bottom and under leaves, especially at the joints where the bug tends to concentrate. You need to spray every 4/5 days, at least a month, to control a severe infestation.

 

Above said, please confirm for yourself it is a mealy bug infestation you are dealing with, before spraying.

 

As the good doctor told you above; if you are dealing with a limited number of trees you can achieve the same results just by patiently washing your trees with a light dish washing solution mixed with some mineral oil.

After you have it under control, initiate preventative measures, for a small number of trees, organic works fine.

 

Healthy coffee trees are vigorous growers, your job will be a lot easier if you prune them aggressively before starting

 

Good advise with some experience behind it.  But of course, since this is the organic forum, it should be pointed out that neonicotinoid insecticides, although a very powerful pest management tool, are not organic program compatible, not even close. And they can be very disrupting to biological control and deadly to pollinators, pest predators and parasitoids. 

 

Any neonic' is "systemic" chemical pesticide. This means it is hard chemistry that is mobile in the plant tissues,  absorbed into the leaves and stems, or if applied to the soil is taken up by the roots and translocated throughout the plant tissues. Therefore any food or drink crop may become contaminated by the pesticide. Different neonics have different levels of penetration into plant tissues and length of residual effectiveness, and therefore some remain in the plant tissues for extended periods of time; a year or more in the case of imidacloprid.  I'm not familiar with acetamiprid. 

 

So you may not notice the chemi in your coffee, but it may be there if you've used neonic' pesticide.  If you don't care, or if you want to cull your crop or let it drop and not consume or sell it for the current season, then ok I guess. But not OK for honeybees.  For non-consumables, or for a crop that you choose to abort sales or consumption for a year, then check out Starkle G (from Mitsui), (dinotefuran is the a.i. (active ingredient) one of the most potent, most mobile in the plant tissues, and fast acting neonics on the market. 

 

Yes I should be banned from the organic subforum for mentioning it. 

 

Preventive treatment is the key to not having to resort to this kind of stuff. Now you know that coffee plants can get mealybugs. Inspect, monitor throughout the season, know the plant growth and climate cycles, know the pest life cycles of the plants and crops you grow, anticipate potential pest problems and prevent them from getting advanced. Accept that preventive maintenance requires a comprehensive approach, soil and water management, fertility/plant nutrition, protection of natural pest predators and parasitoids, sometimes introduction/release of biological control agents, or possible repeated preventive spraying with bio-rational pesticides, botanical pest repellents/reproductive disruptors. 

 

BTW, aggressive pruning often promotes excessive vegetative growth. I don't know coffee plants that well , but in the hort world, moderate pruning is usually better.

[Brunolem]

18 hours ago, soidog2 said:

It is most likely a mealy bug, left untreated looks like you description.

Please post some clear pictures to verify, In my coffee trees I had to deal with this same problem and its not fun.

After endless searches I found this "ซาดิส" it is a neonicotiniod, Acetamiprid, available in Thailand.

Made for sap sucking insects, works extremely well. You need to thoroughly spray top and bottom and under leaves, especially at the joints where the bug tends to concentrate. You need to spray every 4/5 days, at least a month, to control a severe infestation.

 

Above said, please confirm for yourself it is a mealy bug infestation you are dealing with, before spraying.

 

As the good doctor told you above; if you are dealing with a limited number of trees you can achieve the same results just by patiently washing your trees with a light dish washing solution mixed with some mineral oil.

After you have it under control, initiate preventative measures, for a small number of trees, organic works fine.

 

Healthy coffee trees are vigorous growers, your job will be a lot easier if you prune them aggressively before starting

Thanks for all this information.

After doing some reasearch on internet, I can confirm that it is a mealy bug infestation.

I followed the advice given by different posters and went on spraying the buggers and their eggs with water, with the sprayer very close to the target so as to give maximum power to the water.

It went on quite well.

As you say, I have a small number of trees, so I was able to treat them branch by branch, from above and from below...bugs are mostly concentrated below the joints and the leaves (seem like they don't like sun).

I will follow up every week to make sure they don't come back, at least in too large quantities.

Right now there are coffee cherries growing, so I don't think it is the right time for pruning.

 

[soidog2]

Next, you need to learn how to control the ants, ants farm the bugs for the sugars they produce. Do some research on that, not that difficult. If not, the bugs will be right back.

Inspect your trees all the time for spots you might have missed. 

 

Good luck.

[Brunolem]

17 hours ago, soidog2 said:

Next, you need to learn how to control the ants, ants farm the bugs for the sugars they produce. Do some research on that, not that difficult. If not, the bugs will be right back.

Inspect your trees all the time for spots you might have missed. 

 

Good luck.

Ants are becoming a major nuisance, not only for coffee trees...they are everywhere this year! Never seen anything like that.

Not a square inch of ground is free of them, and of course they colonize the trees, especially the mango trees.

Red ants prefer mango trees and are very aggressive, but it is nothing compared to these very very small ants that are everywhere on the ground and in the coffee trees. They bite long before one can see them and it hurts like hell.

It has reached such a point that I can go work in the garden only after wearing socks and keeping with me at all times a pack of white powdered ant poison which I use with abandon.

I have never seen anything like that in the past.

My guess is this ant infestation has to do both with climate change and with the mass extinction of species, including thos which used to keep the ant population under control.

[KonaRain]

Yeah, neo-nics are being banned in some places.. poss. the UK & US..

The bees had a big test with the Viora mite.. they pollinate 1/3 of all our crops.. good luck with the ant problem..

Aloha