Hi, I'm having this issue in my indoor Jasmin Sambac and some other tropical plants (photo attached). Instead of one branch, the axillary buds are showing numerous buds clustered together. None are maturing or showing proper leaves and at some point drying out. Is this happening for over-fertilization? I do not think I did that. I didn't apply any hormones either. Is this a disease? I am especially sad for a few of my citrus trees having this trouble. Please note that not all citrus trees are having this problem. All plants are in my living room with a temperature range of 19 - 25 Celcius, and 40%-60 % humidity.
You may be seeing signs of a micronutrient deficiency. While I have not seen this particular growth pattern before, multiple bud growth and die back can be a symptom of calcium or copper deficiency. Do a google search for "citrus micronutrient auxiliary buds" and then look for "bud" or "buds" in the results. Micronutrient deficiency can happen easily if using a soilless mix, or growing the plants in pots over a long time. If it is a micronutrient deficiency there are various additives that can be added as a top dressing or in the water used on the plants. For example, Miracle Gro has a bit of copper. Gypsum can be used for calcium. Check with your local garden center and see what they suggest for copper and calcium deficiency.
This doesn’t look like micronutrients deficiency. One of my citrus plant now started this auxiliary buds issue. I’ve carefully made the medium for citrus and used specialized slow release citrus fertilizer. (See photo). Could this be because of prolonged (12h/day) grow light i’m giving? The jasmine sambac plants actually had nice growth in summer months. There were not clustered buds and they grew nice branches instead of drying out. What can I do about this? @Junglekeeper , any suggestions?
Here is a photo of another plant with a similar affliction: Geranium (Pelargonium spp.)-Shoot Proliferation and Leafy Gall. Perhaps your problem has a similar cause. Follow the link on the page for a detailed description. Note "areal gall" in the photo's caption may be a mispelling of "aerial gall".
Thank you @Junglekeeper! Though I am sad to learn that there is no active cure for this disease, I am really glad to know what I am dealing with. I wished I studied more and was educated earlier when I first noticed the pathogen on a Sweetsop plant that I grew from seed. I think I’ve already infected at least 40% of my pots. I’ll try to save the unaffected plants.
If yours is indeed a bacterial infection, then I would have thought other parts of the plant such as the leaves would also be affected but that does not appear to be the case so I'm less sure.
