Citrus Brown Rot
Phytophthora spp.
Citrusoomycete
A rain-splash disease affecting low-hanging fruit, producing a pungent brown, leathery rot.
Symptoms
Brown, leathery rot with a distinctive pungent odor, mainly on fruit close to the ground where rain splashes soilborne spores upward.
Favorable conditions
- •Heavy rain during fruit development
- •Low-hanging fruit and skirts close to the soil
- •Poor grove drainage
Management
- 1Skirt-prune trees so fruit hangs above the splash zone
- 2Apply copper fungicide sprays before the rainy season
- 3Improve grove drainage
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