I took a little time to work with this poor satsuki azalea (gumpo white) today and I thought that I would post a follow up to the rhizoctonia web blight article. I spent about an hour or so with tweezers romoving the brown leaves that were stuck in the canopy. I still have a few more that need to be removed but I am calling it done for now. As you can see it can be very devastating to the plant that it attacks. Approximately 50% of the leaves were destroyed by the fungus and, also, since most of the new foliage was compromised, next Spring's flowers were taken also. Here is a look at the damage:
For comparison, here are some pictures of the same tree in April of this year, a few days after a repot:
And, some pictures of a July trim:
Usually, this type of fungus is not a problem at this time of year, but October has been unusually warm. Today, it was 92 degrees; this time last year, we were wearing jackets in the evening. So, the moral of the story, I guess if there is one, is to make sure that you continue to spray fungicide monthly as a preventative as long as it is warm enough for fungi to be active. I appears that there is always a FUNGUS AMONG US.