Anthracnose
Dark, sunken, sharp-edged lesions — on bean pods as black craters, on melon and cucumber leaves as brown blotches that tear out, on shade-tree leaves as browning that follows the veins. Wet springs bring it; the spores travel in splashing water.
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.
1Stay out of wet beans
Working wet plants carries the spores plant to plant on your hands and clothes; harvest dry.
Try this first2Rotate and buy clean seed
It rides on seed and overwinters in debris; two years out of a bed plus certified seed breaks the chain.
3Copper fungicide early in wet years
Protective label-scheduled coverage when a wet spring meets a susceptible crop.
copper fungicide spray garden
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Which plants get anthracnose
Every plant we cover that gets anthracnose, 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.
trees7
American Linden (Basswood)Tilia americanacosmetic
American SycamorePlatanus occidentalisbrowns spring foliage in wet springs; tree recovers
AvocadoPersea americana
Flowering DogwoodCornus floridakilled wild ones in the East — plant resistant cultivars/hybrids
LimeCitrus × aurantiifolia / latifolia
MangoMangifera indicablackens flowers/fruit in humidity
PapayaCarica papaya
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When to treat
Act in a wet spring, before the lesions spread. Stay out of the planting while the leaves are wet.
On specific plants
- Dormant
- Lime Sulfur: Late winter (Delayed Dormant) to clean up Anthracnose/Rust spores on canes.
Timing only — the label is the law
This page tells you when to watch for anthracnose 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 anthracnose, 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.