How To Get Rid Of Bacterial Blight

You want to know if your plants are infected with bacterial blight and how to treat it? Great!

This article is exactly for you since I will show you many easy but yet effective ways how to get rid of bacterial blight in the following chapters.

Bacterial Blight Overview

Short description	Bacterial blight often occurs in wet and cool climatic zones and can do lots of damage to your plants if not treated properly.
Scientific name	Xanthomonas axonopodis.
Lifespan	Up to a few years if not treated.
What plants are vulnerable?	Fruit trees like cherries, apricots, apples, peaches and pears are quite vulnerable to bacterial blight infestation.
Symptoms	You will see characteristic brown or yellow spots in many different shapes and sizes on the leaves of your plants.
Distribution	Worldwide.
Potential damage	Bacterial blight can lead to the decay of your plants if not treated in a reasonable manner.
Control options	Chemical, biological and cultural.
Treatment difficulty	Intermediate.

How to prevent & control Bacterial Blight

1. Remove contaminated plant material to avoid the spread of bacterial blight

One of the simplest measures you should take is to just remove plant material that is contaminated with bacterial blight so that the plant diseases cannot spread to other garden plants anymore.

Just dispose of this plant material and don’t use it for composting purposes anymore to avoid any spread of this bacterial disease in your garden.

2. Use neem oil to get rid of bacterial blight

Once you got rid of the infected leaves, you can use neem oil to prevent the development of bacterial blight.

Just spray a solution of neem oil and water onto the leaves of your plants and you will often be able to control bacterial blight with this simple but yet effective measure.

3. Spray vinegar onto the leaves of your plants

Vinegar is another natural but still efficient substance to treat plants infected with bacterial blight.

Just spray some vinegar onto the leaves of your plants and you will often see quick results since bacteria that cause bacterial blight usually don’t like high levels of acidity at all.

4. Use stinging nettle liquid to get rid of bacterial blight

If you want to spend as little money as possible to get rid of pests and plant diseases, you can also just collect some stinging nettles, put them in a bucket full of water and wait for a few days before you remove the plant material.

By doing so, you can produce a perfectly natural liquid that can be used as pesticide and fertilizer at the same time.

You just need to spray it onto your plants and bacterial blight will often vanish pretty quickly.

5. Baking soda may help as well

Some gardeners also report that they have seen great results with baking soda when it comes to treating bacterial blight.

While I haven’t personally tried it yet, you can just give it a try and see if it works out for you.

After all, what do you have to lose?! 😉

6. Potassium bicarbonate as secret measure against many plant diseases

Potassium bicarbonate is well-known to help against several plant diseases.

You can just order it online and treat your plants with this mineral and bacterial blight infestation should become far less severe pretty soon.

7. Horticultural soap to get rid of bacterial canker

While horticultural soap is often used to keep away pesticides from your plants, it can also help you get rid of bacterial canker and blight on your plants.

You can get this soap from the garden center or just order it online.

8. Chemical substances to control bacterial blight

If you haven’t seen any success with the measures described earlier in this article for some strange reason, one of the last things you should try to control bacterial blight is to use chemical substances.

While those substances work, they are often pretty harmful to our environment and can also hurt your plants.

9. Provide an optimal site for your plants

Apart from the measures you should take once you spot bacterial blight on your plants, you can also take some preventive measures to avoid the development of bacterial blight in the first place.

One reason why plants become vulnerable to bacterial blight is that people often don’t provide optimal growing conditions to their plants.

In turn, plants will not become resistant enough to deal with those plant diseases on their own.

Hence, make sure to provide optimal conditions to your plants at the beginning of each growing season to avoid the need for any intervention later on.

10. Make sure that air can circulate well

To keep away plant diseases like bacterial blight, it is also important that you assure sufficient air circulation so that bacteria cannot develop that well and can be controlled in a completely natural manner without any further intervention from your side.

11. Use high-quality soil to prevent the development of bacterial blight

Another measure to prevent the formation of bacterial blight is to use high-quality soil that is rich in nutrients so that your plants get strong and resistant to pests and plant diseases soon.

12. Adjust your watering schedule

Also your watering behavior can play an important role in the development of bacterial blight.

Hence, make sure that you don’t water your plants too much so that the soil can dry up a little bit and the spread of bacteria becomes less likely.

13. Avoid waterlogging

Last but not least, make sure that water can run off properly so that waterlogging will not become an issue.

Otherwise, the roots of your plants may start to rot and this will make your plants just more vulnerable to all sorts of plant diseases and pest infestation.

What’s left to say?

Now that you got proper guidance on how to control bacterial blight in your garden, you should also check out my grower’s guides and my companion plant articles to get even more information about how to grow plants in the best possible manner in general.

About the Author

My name is Andreas and I’m really passionate about our environment and also about growing plants. In fact, I have grown several different plants over many years. I love to see my plants grow and also always try new things to improve my overall conditions at home.

In my blog posts, I want to share my experiences with you so that you can become successful in growing various different plants and improving your home as well, even though you might still be a beginner right now.