I have a bay tree and it has a black substance on the leaves what is wrong and what can i do to put it right?

Answer 1

Could it be sooty mould????
Is the tree small enough for you to wipe each leave with soapy water?
Need to figure out the cause as well??? Aphids???? Not enough air circulation?

Answer 2

Check your plant for aphids, scale, or mealy bugs!!

What happens is aphids eat your plants and when they go to the bathroom, they excrete a substance called honeydew! The honeydew eventually turns this nasty black color and can cover the plant when insect infestations are really bad.

The reason it turns black is because the honeydew serves as a food source for sooty mold, which DOES NOT harm your plants. The sooty mold only grows on the honeydew and can cover the plant, reducing photosynthesis, but is easily washed off the plant with soapy water, or mother nature will wash it off with time.

A fungicide will not help get rid of the sooty mold, just wash it off with soapy water, then rinse your plant with regular water to get the suds off! Washing the plant will also remove some of the insects, but you will still need to spray those.

You also need to fix the insect problem! I would suggest a product containing imidacloprid. Bayer products at Lowes and Home Depot will have this chemical. This is a chemical that the plant will take up into its system and when the bugs eat the plant, they eat the poison and die.

Also, where is the tree planted? It may not be getting enough sun (sooty mold will grow in moist, shaded locations). Make sure you are giving the plant what it needs to be healthy (enough sun, water, fertilizer,etc).

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

It is sooty mold. It is a fungal disease that doesn't really hurt the plant unless the black gets so dense that light cannot penetrate the leaf.

The cause can be any of a number of sucking insects, like aphids, thrips, whiteflies, scale, or spider mites. They are usually on the bottom of the leaves and when they pierce the leaf to suck sap, the sap runs right through them and drips out the hind end onto the leaves below. This sticky sap is the medium that sooty mold grows on. So to get rid of the sooty mold you have to get rid of whatever is sucking the sap.

You can use nonpoisonous things like neem oil, horticultural oil or insecticidal soap. Or you can use something stronger depending if the bay tree is an indoor plant or outdoor. IMPORTANT: Spray the bottoms of the leaves--90% of the bugs are on the bottoms. Once they are dead you can clean the sooty mold off with water.

Answer 4

Black Leaf Tree