Rosette is a nutritional deficiency disease caused by certain soil conditions which make zinc unavailable to the pecan tree. All pecan trees require zinc for growth.
Trees showing the first symptom of zinc deficiency have yellowed tops. The individual leaflets when examined are yellowish and mottled. The next season the foliage may be yellowish and the leaflets narrowed and crinkled. More severely affected trees produce foliage which is a yellowish to reddish-brown overall color, and the leaflets are very narrow with reddish-brown spots and may be perforated. Shoots are much shortened and the leaves are produced in compact bunches of dense foliage.
Trees affected by rosette for several seasons have many dead shoots and small branches from the dying-back of each season’s growth, [Figure 4]. Such trees are greatly stunted, of poor vigor and produce few, if any, nuts.
Control.—Rosette is controlled readily by applying zinc sulfate to the tree either as a foliage spray or in the dry form as a soil application. Where a disease and insect spray control program is being carried out, zinc sulfate may be added to the spray mixture.
Foliage spray. Two pounds zinc sulfate (36 percent) per 100 gallons of water.
First application: after pollination when tips of nutlets turn brown.
Second application: 3 to 4 weeks later.
Third application: 3 to 4 weeks later.
Soil application. Application of zinc sulfate to the soil, particularly in a large orchard is a more expensive operation, but it provides longer protection against rosette.
In highly alkaline soils, or soils that readily fix zinc and make it unavailable to the tree, foliage spray applications of zinc sulfate are more economical because of the excessive rates required to supply available zinc through the soil.