Bo Tree Rust
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Alison Logee
Posted on: July 13, 2007

I’ve had my 2 bo trees since last year. One is beautiful and the other’s leaves have rust all over them. Although this particular plant is growing at a good rate, what can I do about the rust please?

First make sure there is no dripping faucet or pipe over the plant and that it might be real iron rust. If this is not so, then it probably is a rust fungus. Most rusts are very host specific, which means this type of rust will not infect another type of plant, but it may infect your other plant. So make sure to move it into another room or if outside to another part of the yard. Unfortunately most rusts are systemic, which means the infection is inside the whole plant and generally cannot be cured. You should be safe and throw it away. Spray the other plant with a sulphur spray to make it harder for spores from the infected plant to penetrate into the healthy plant as well. These spores may stay viable for a while and get picked up by air currents, so stay vigilant.

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