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probable boxwood blight - how to confirm and what to do if it is. #833030
Asked May 31, 2023, 5:49 PM EDT
Cuyahoga County Ohio
Expert Response
Hello Brad,
It has been a bad winter for boxwoods. Many have some degree of winter damage. Yours actually looks pretty good. It is difficult for me to determine if it is indeed boxwood blight from your images. Therefore I suggest the following.
Testing: Boxwood blight generally appears in mid to late summer, after we've had a high degree of humidity and moisture. Although the pictures of the the leaves are a bit dark I enlarged them and lightened the colors. From that is could possibly be leafminer damage. Penn State has a good reference https://extension.psu.edu/boxwood-blight-emerging-threat-to-pennsylvanias-landscape . This shows examples of boxwood blight and other boxwood diseases. To get the best diagnosis, as is suggested, before treatment, send samples to the Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab in Wooster to be sure. https://agri.ohio.gov/divisions/plant-health/resources/opdn. Follow the instructions on that site and Penn State's as far as double bagging. My suggestion is to send a larger sample than just single leaves. Perhaps you can cut a small branch for examination. You might want to put it into a padded envelope or small box to avoid it getting crushed during shipping. This will ensure a better diagnosis.
Re-examine your boxwoods: Please look at the Penn State reference above and this OSU article https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1359. Both have good information on boxwood blight and other boxwood diseases. You can see if your boxwood has the blackened streaks of blight or if it is infected with boxwood leafminers.
Hold off on treatment or removal of the first boxwood until you have a diagnosis.
I hope this helps,
Sabine