Monthly Tip

If your citrus leaves have a black coating, you may have a sooty mold problem. This black mold can also be seen on citrus fruit, avocado leaves, magnolia leaves, hibiscus, other host plants, and even on sidewalks beneath trees.

The sooty mold fungi grow on “honeydew”, a sticky substance excreted by plant-sucking insects such as aphids, scale, mealybug, and whitefly. They suck the sap out of plants and excrete excess sugars. It exists purely on the surface of a plant and is not a systemic issue. By itself, the fungi cannot kill the plant but it can coat the leaves to the extent that sunlight is prevented from reaching the leaf surface, thus reduce photosynthesis. 

Ants protect the sucking insects from their predators so they can eat the honeydew. Keep ants out of trees and away from honeydew-producing insects by applying a sticky compound such as Tanglefoot on a tape wrapped around the trunk.