Phomopsis Blight
Shoot tips and young twigs die back from the end, fading from light green to reddish brown then ash grey, and the dead tissue carries rows of tiny black pimples. On eggplant and grape it shows instead as pale-centred brown spots with the same black pimples, and those black fruiting bodies embedded in dead tissue are the giveaway.
Disease checklist
Four things to look for. If most of them match what you are holding, you are in the right place.
What gets rid of it
Gentlest option first. For most backyard cases the first one is enough, so try these in order and stop as soon as it works. If you do spray something, the product label tells you how — please read the notice further down.
1Prune in dry weather only
Cut blighted tips back into healthy wood when the plant is dry, and disinfect the blades between cuts.
isopropyl alcohol spray bottleTry this first2Burn or bin the prunings
Do not chip infected juniper or arborvitae prunings for mulch, since the fungus keeps sporulating on them.
3Stop overhead watering
Water conifers and blueberries at the root zone so the new shoots are not repeatedly wetted.
drip irrigation kit for garden4Ease off the nitrogen
Heavy feeding pushes the soft new growth the fungus needs, so feed lightly.
5Protect new spring growth on conifers
Thiophanate-methyl or a labelled product applied as growth starts and repeated through the flush, per the label.
thiophanate methyl fungicide6Use clean seed and rotate for eggplant
Buy treated or certified seed, rotate eggplant on a three year cycle, and clear the crop residue.
eggplant seeds disease resistant
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Which plants get phomopsis blight
Every plant we cover that gets phomopsis blight, grouped by type — tap any one to open its page. A note beside a plant came from that plant’s own entry, because the same disease can be a minor nuisance on one plant and a serious problem on another. Plenty of plants we do not cover get it too.
annual1
Plant families hit hardest
Related plants often share the same problems, so if one plant in a family has it, check the others. The largest group here is Cupressaceae, with 3 of the 5 affected plants.
- Cupressaceae3 plants
When to treat
Prune out blighted tips in dry weather as soon as you see them, and protect on conifers when new growth is pushing in spring, because the fungus only takes hold in soft new shoots and old wood cannot be cured.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for phomopsis blight and when treating is worth considering. It is not a recommendation to apply any particular product. Read and follow the product label before you spray — under federal law the label is the legal instruction, and using a pesticide against it is illegal.
- Check the pre-harvest interval. Every product that’s cleared for an edible crop sets a minimum number of days between spraying and picking. Find it on the label before you spray anything you intend to eat.
- Check the re-entry interval before you or anyone else works in the treated area again, and use the protective equipment the label names.
- Confirm the product is registered for your crop in your state. This page groups many different crops together, and a product legal on one of them is not legal on all of them — state registrations differ too. Your state pesticide agency or local extension office can confirm both.
- Rates and mixing instructions come from the label, never from us. We don’t publish them because they differ by product and formulation.
Other problems on the same plants
If a plant gets phomopsis blight, these are the problems it most often gets as well, so they are worth checking for while you are out there. They tend to appear together; one does not cause another.