Hello, 

I'm Metis2007, I joined a while back but have not posted before.  I heard about your site from northeastnewbie on Ebay after I bought some cuttings from him.
 
I messed up last year with cuttings I received from him, put them out too early, and lost them to an unexpected late spring frost.

 So I tried again this year, and bought some from him, and then from a couple of other people on Ebay so I would have a lot to work with. I put them in the shoebox with the sphagnum moss, and they started growing roots.

I didn't have trouble with mold or fungus on the cuttings I received from him, but I also bought about twenty Brown turkey cuttings and they started to rot before they rooted.  I threw out the bad ones, separated out the Brown Turkey from the others, washed the sphagnum moss in chlorine & water and started over after the moss dried out.  When everyone started rooting, I put them in the plastic cups with the vermiculite and perlite mix, then put them in one of those big plastic storage bins you get at Walmart that has the cover, and I'd remove the cover for a while everyday. When they grew leaves, I would put them in the window for an hour or two so they could get sun for photosynthesis. Then back into the container so they'd have the humidity again.
 
In my plant room, I also had started a lot of horse chestnut trees and lots of kinds of oaks.  I did not have them in the plastic box with the fig cuttings, but sometimes they sat next to the fig cuttings on the windowsill as the horse-chestnut leaves sprouted so quickly.

Last week, I noticed that all the figs had bright blue spots on the leaves.  They are neon blue, it looks like something from another planet. It starts in the middle of the leaves and grows out.  

Then I saw the same on about half the horse chestnut plants' leaves. These are neon blue spots on the top of the leaf; on the center veins and then radiating out from the center to the edges.  The edges then turn brittle grey, get splotchy blue and curl up on the chestnuts to die. The chestnuts have malformed leaves left from the dried up areas. 

The fig leaves that have the blue spots have the spots become splotchy at the ends, go lighter color blue, then the leaf falls off.

I looked at the leaves under a UV light and they glow grey, not blue. On animals or people, you'll see this color with a fungus (like athletes foot or sometimes a yeast infection.)  I'm not as familiar with plants, but I suspect it is a fungus or mold as well because of the color, just like on animals?  

I sprayed all the plants with water and white vinegar mixed together to change the fungus environment (on animals they don't like an acid environment).
 
I waited a week, it didn't seem to do anything at all, so I mixed four tablespoons of chlorox with a gallon of water and sprayed everybody again.
 
Then I put some of the the chestnut trees outside to see if the sun/wind would kill this fungus.

 I also tried putting a few of the more leaved figs outside during the day for six hours to see if the sun/wind would kill the fungus.  On the chestnuts, the color turned even MORE intense blue, as if it liked the sun and wind.  On the figs, the color went light and more splotchy as the spots came together.  Now the figs are losing all their leaves, and everyone of them has some of the blue spots.  On the chestnut trees, about half are infected.  

I apologize in advance that this is so long, I wanted to put all the particulars so you could get a better picture.  
Thinking on that, I guess I should take some photos of both so someone could look at it?  I couldn't find anything about blue-spotted leaves on the Google images, or under topics for figs or chestnuts.

I'm not sure who gave it to whom, but both sets of plants are very unhappy.
 
Does anyone have any idea of what this is, or how to treat it?  Is it possible the soil is contaminated in some way?  

I took the bin outside, and washed it out, then set it in the sun. When it was dry, I replaced all the figs last night so they could get the humidity (I washed the lid, too, before I closed it).  

Perhaps I should chlorox it out as well? I don't know if this disease puts out spores or what.  

I put all the chestnut trees outside and left them on the front porch.  They are so hard to grow, I had to stratify the nuts and I've never been able to pull off sprouting them before, so I didn't want to throw them away.  

I can't bear to throw out the figs after all we've been through.

 If there is a way to fix this, please let me know.  Any advice or help would be so gratefully appreciated.  

Thank you in advance, and sorry for the long, long discourse.

Metis2007 

 

Belated welcome!

Yes, photos would be helpful to our figsperts.

anne, i can't say i have seen that before. picture might help. leaving them out in the sun should have killed mold. so it must be something else. any rot or mold, i usually get rid of them by leaving out in the sun with fresh air. some members use product called physan 20 to control mold. some others use peroxide solution. i find that bleach doesn't work too well.

Anne, welcome to the forum.

Thank you for the welcome, all three of you!  Bless your heart for taking the time to read this voluminous message.  I am going to go outside now and try to take some photos of this.  I know there is a close-up feature on my digital camera, but I am not sure how to use it---but I'll figure it out, I'm sure.
 
I had ordered the Physon 20 a while back, so I have the unopened bottle. When I bought my fig cuttings this year from NEnewbie he emailed me and said he treated the cuttings with it before he sent them, and that I should get the smallest bottle available in case I ever had to re-treat them. So I did. But, when I had read the directions (it was about 2 tsp. per gallon) I got nervous because it had so many cautionary notes (don't get in eyes, hands, this is a poison, etc) that I chickened out.  

Last year I had used some stuff that was supposed to be organic, was it Neem oil ---in a blue bottle? Something like that---anyway, I sprayed all my baby mimosa and catalpa trees with it as a precaution because I saw fuzzy stuff that looked like mold on the dirt in their pots.  The Neem oil was supposed to be safe because it was organic, but it killed every one of those catalpa and mimosas within 8 hours of them being sprayed.  There were about 25 of each plant I'd grown from seed in little pots, and it broke my heart. I threw out the spray bottle of Neem oil because I was so disgusted with it, they touted it as being very safe.

When I read on the Physon all the "don'ts" and how poisonous it could potentially be,  I was afraid to use it; I figured if the organic stuff killed the little trees, this chemical stuff would be worse.

 But I can mix it up and spray it right now (I'll use gloves and a mask and do it outside) if you think it would help.  They look like they will die from this if I don't (the figs, not the chestnuts).  Do you just spritz it on them,  or really douse it on?  Shall I do it more than once?

It's good I have it here; it must be a fig thing since NE newbie had recommended it.  And I do so appreciate that you have "figsperts" who might be able to do a House-type diagnosis on plants!  It certainly is odd-looking, just as if someone painted or spattered the leaves with neon-blue florescent paint.

I'll go outside, mix up the gallon with the 2 tsp. of Physon 20; take some photos, and get back to you.  

I am most appreciative, and thank you for the warm welcome.  I look forward to visiting with all of you on this forum.  

Anne
 

Hello Anne,
Welcome to the Forum Community.
Have no Idea what you have, but if its fungal in a closed environment, I have used a 50/50 mix of plain Hydrogen Peroxide(3%) and water. I have sprayed it on cupped cuttings, cutting potting mix and cuttings with newly developed roots without any noticeable damage to the plants, while killing the fungal growth. You could do a test to see if it works.
Good Luck.

Hello Anne and welcome to the forum. I have no idea about about the blue spots. I've used Physan 20 in the past with no harmful side effects to me or my trees and cuttings. The warnings are to try to cover themselves from all liability. I've also used neem oil without problem. Neem oil should only be sprayed late in the day on tree exposed to direct sunlight as the oil will fry the plants. It should not pose any problem to trees inside or in shade. Of course it cannot be used straight from the bottle but mixed with water. Sorry I couldn't be of any help otherwise.
"gene"

Welcome!  Photos will help but it's probably a mold.  The last thing you want when you have mold is high humidity.  Do the cuttings have roots?

Hello Anne and welcome to the forum.

I might be grasping at straws but are you using any fertilizer like Miracle Grow. Perhaps some splashed on the leaves and is causing the blue cast to the leaves. Just trying to figure out the mystery blue spots. hmmmmmm

Mold is my guess too, but I would try something systemic, not topical.

Thank you for your help. I'm sorry I didn't get back on here sooner, but we had a medical emergency in the family (all is well now). 

I sprayed the P-20 on the figs (they do have roots) and it appears to have stopped the problem.  At the same time, I moved all of them out of the container since they have leaves and put the pots outside where they get a breeze and indirect sunlight, because of what you said with the high humidity. 

I think it may have been a mold; when I sprayed the leaves, the bright blue color diffused into a grey color the next day.  The parts that were badly infected shriveled in on themselves, especially on the edges. The ones that just had a little of the mold (?) are recovering nicely, although you can still see the spots faintly on them. 

I didn't know about the Neem oil and I want to thank you for sharing that information.  When I bought it, it was in a spray bottle and, I believe, already diluted because they said to spray from about 8 inches away (which I did) but I don't recall if I had the mimosas in the sunlight afterward, which may have burned them.  Or, it could have been that it wasn't diluted and I sprayed full-strength; since I disposed of the container I can't check.  But it is nice to know that for the future. 

I have seen the blue spots from Miracle Grow, so I know what you mean, but I hadn't used any on these yet because I thought it might be too strong for the new roots and burn them.  I didn't get the picture of the original bright blue spots because right after that we had the emergency, but if I see it again I'll take photos right away so I can show them to you.

Thank you all for your assistance!