Fungicide for Sooty Blotch on Apples - Ask Extension
I am located near the bay and the humidity results in a great deal of sooty blotch on my 3 apple trees. In the past I've controlled it with Captan bu...
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Fungicide for Sooty Blotch on Apples #942479
Asked August 15, 2026, 9:17 AM EDT
I am located near the bay and the humidity results in a great deal of sooty blotch on my 3 apple trees. In the past I've controlled it with Captan but it doesn't seem available anymore in non-commercial quantities. What are my options going forward? Thinning the fruit and the tree seems a not effective means of prevention.
Harford County Maryland
Expert Response
You can find other fungicide options for various apple diseases in the linked PDF: Virginia Tech Home Fruit pest management guide. (You can keyword search it for "apple" or "sooty blotch," for example, as it's a long document overall.) According to their fungicide effectiveness chart, for sooty blotch in particular, captan is listed as "good," as is mancozeb, while a product containing two fungicide ingredients (boscalid and pyraclostrobin) is listed as "excellent." Both captan and mancozeb-containing products have been available over-the-counter at local garden centers/nurseries in the past, but if they are getting hard to find, the other product appears to also be a Bonide brand formulation, and that brand tends to be widely stocked.
Miri
Miri
