Zone 5, New Hampshire I had an oak tree a few weeks ago I noticed the leaves wilted and all turned brown; the whole tree. On the other side of the house today, I noticed another tree with almost no leaves - maybe a birch; maybe 5% of the leaves are there and they look burned or black. It is only mid September and some of the early leaves are barely starting to turn yellow. I did spray some poison ivy herbecide near the base of these trees a month or so ago; and another month or so befre that. I'm wondering if I killed these trees with the herbecide or possibly is it is coincidence and I need to look for another cause. Maybe they are not dead? How to tell?
Is your poison ivy herbecide the kind that lays on the leaf and goes into the plant to kill it or will it go into the roots to kill the poison ivy. If so it may have rained and gone down to the roots and done some damage to the trees. Hopefully it won't be fatal.
Roundup 2 applicaitons, and then Ortho ivy and brush. Think Roundup is Glycophosphate and Orhto is Triclopyr. Glycophosphate become inert pretty quick and is absorbed through the leaves. The Ortho product may behave differently - even though initially it is applied the same way, I think it may be active longer in the soil, however I can't find anything easily when I google for it, so it may not be a pervasive issue. I just wonder if there is any case where a tree will drop all its leaves off season, and not be a goner. Trying to figue out of there is some action I should take.
Roundup is what we use. In the yellow bottle. We had really really allot of the stuff 7 years ago and now we just have a little popping up and we hit it every 2 weeks as soon as it appears. We had thick vines climbing up trees. we used a chain saw to cut 1 foot sections apart. It's still on the tree but it's dead, for sure.
think I'm going to have an Arborist come check it out. I think this is beyond me, and don't want to run the risk of losing lots of trees. I notices several more today, 4-6 that I don't believe were dead earlier in the season, and have either just dropped all their leaves before any of the other trees have even turned color, or their dead for some reason. With at least 4 trees I knew were dead I fear some systemic problem that needs fixing if possible.
I am in zone 5 as well. I noticed the oaks turning brown early, and the birch trees have been dropping leaves here for weeks. Our Chestnut trees are almost naked already too. Crazy year.
That's good to hear some trees are dropping early. Weird. I have a tree guy coming tomorrow to check things out - hopefully he has good news and doesn't just try to sell me on taking down trees that might be just fine. Anyway, in looking around the yard at the trees, I noticed some that seem to have brown spots all over them, not sure if this is normal; really just about every leaf on the tree looks like these. I took pictures, and it is on Birch, Basswood, Beech, Maple - at least from the samples I took shown here that's what I think these are. These were all picked from live trees still having a full canopy of leaves, they just look like something might be up. ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) Any ideas on what these spots are? Normal? Problem?
Now that you found that, I think we had a. sickness on trees many years ago. It made all the leaves wilt and fall off early. The extension office here said it was here and would just last that season. that next your the trees would be fine. And they were. Bet you have something like I did.
Thanks for the encouragement, I would be very pleased if the bald trees were not dead and just calling it an early year due to stress ... like going to bed early after a hard day so to speak.
Arborist came bye today. So, the spots are cosmetic and due to a wet spring, doesn't really affect long term health of tree. The few Ash trees also lose their leaves very early, seemed to think nothing to worry about and no action items there. A few of the Maples seemed to have some fungus and he thought they should probably come down due to being located next to garage and driveway. Tree one on left, tree two on right. Tree one lost all foliage a month or so ago, Arborist seemed to think this was tree death. Tree two seems to have more fungus, but healthy foliage. Base of tree one, looks like most of the bark has decayed around the whole tree. ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) Maple Tree 2, has his fungus growing, curious if this is certain tree death. ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) Tree three, not in any pics yet - some decay at base, same white fungus, foliage seems very full, had no idea there was any issue at all. Fungus probably got in from what appears to be a half healed wound. ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from film495's Garden ) It's likely I'll take all tree down. Overall, the input was very good from the Arborist. A little dissapointed these Red Maples are likely to come down, but probably a wise choice and much less of a problem that what I had running through my head. Anyone ever seen this fungus before? One of these I'd really like to try to save.
This might be a helpful way of telling if your backyard tree is either diseased or dead http://home.howstuffworks.com/diseased-or-dead-tree.htm
After a long learning proess, I have several thing going on. (1) I actually have a few Elm trees that are dead, and a few more that are hanging on. A total of about 8 around the house and yard. (2) There are several ash tress that just lose their leaves early, but are currently healthy for now. 3 or 4 trees. (3) 30 Years ago when the house was built, they filled in around the trunk of several trees 6 or 8 inches deep. It took a long time, but it appears this has let to 4 or 5 very diseased trees with heart rot and lots of muchrooms. (4) This was a big year for leaf spot diseases, so lots of trees looked diseased, but an Arborist told me this would not affect the long term health of any of the trees. (5) I have some caterpillars that reallly like two Butternut trees, although again, an Arborist let me know this was mostly a cosmetic, and not a strong factor in the long term health of the trees. (6) There are also 3 trees that have some old storm damage behind the house. Arborist said they seem good, but to keep an eye on them. So, this is about 20 trees total right around the house and yard. Knowing nothing about tree health when I started I was just sure all the trees were going to die, but seems like that's not the case. I'm plannig to take out the dead ones, and the ones that have obvious disease problems - so, the dead and dying tress will come out. Now that I know what I'm dealing with it is just a matter of getting the work done over time, and getting some firewood in the process. Thanks for the input - I think I would have cracked for sure without this community.
