Southern Sugar Maple Dying/Dead

[JBL]

Hello all,

I collected the tree in question two years ago. Starting about one week ago, one of the two main branches suddenly died. The leaves became dull gray and crispy within a day. You can see the remnants of the small branch just to the left of the carving. Then a couple of days ago, I noticed the same phenomenon was happening to the rest of the tree. As mentioned, this happened very quickly, with the leaves becoming dull gray and very crispy. It basically looks dead now. My watering routine hasn't changed, but upon further inspection, I did notice, for lack of a better word, a wound or sore on the trunk that is a dark red color. This can be seen in pics 2 and 4 on the trunk by the white of the container rim. Sorry, but I don't have a close-up picture currently. Any thoughts on what happened?

 

[rockm]

I have no way of knowing what happened to your tree and this is complete speculation: (nice trunk on that BTW)...

A couple of years ago, I had a fast-moving fungal attacks on recently-collected material that behaved much the same way (--two years is recently collected, even though it is actively growing.) I had a big collected bittersweet vine and a recently collection large hornbeam in pots post-collection. Both pots were placed on the ground under my deck to keep them a bit shaded. Both showed strong new shoots for two months...Then we had a heavy rain. Hard enough to spray splashes from the ground surface up into the soil in the pots (Pots were extra tall nursery containers at least a foot and a half high).

Two days after that heavy rain, shoots on both plants began going brownish then crispy. You could almost see the foliage wilting and drying up standing there. In two days, both trees were dead.

I mention this because this tree looks to be close to the ground. It's also showing similar symptoms to what happened to mine.

Again, I have no way of knowing what happened to your tree and this is complete speculation. I now never place any trees more than two feet from the ground in the spring and summer.

 

[0soyoung]

It seems a few weeks early, but nectria canker is a possibility, given your description of things. It causes Japanese maples to 'flame out' like this and presents lots of little orange fruiting bodies (but about a month from now in my experience which could be due to our different climates).

 

[sorce]

When was it carved?

I'd blame the hole.

That configuration of branch to hole is like a 50/50 death shot for me.

Sorce

 

[JBL]

I have no way of knowing what happened to your tree and this is complete speculation: (nice trunk on that BTW)...

A couple of years ago, I had a fast-moving fungal attacks on recently-collected material that behaved much the same way (--two years is recently collected, even though it is actively growing.) I had a big collected bittersweet vine and a recently collection large hornbeam in pots post-collection. Both pots were placed on the ground under my deck to keep them a bit shaded. Both showed strong new shoots for two months...Then we had a heavy rain. Hard enough to spray splashes from the ground surface up into the soil in the pots (Pots were extra tall nursery containers at least a foot and a half high).

Two days after that heavy rain, shoots on both plants began going brownish then crispy. You could almost see the foliage wilting and drying up standing there. In two days, both trees were dead.

I mention this because this tree looks to be close to the ground. It's also showing similar symptoms to what happened to mine.

Again, I have no way of knowing what happened to your tree and this is complete speculation. I now never place any trees more than two feet from the ground in the spring and summer.

Thanks, I really loved the trunk shape too...

The bench is from the Jerry Norbury plans; the lowest shelf is slightly less than 2 feet high. I have attached a photo with a close up of the "wound" (Maple 5). Also after further inspection I noticed some fissures in the bark further up the trunk. The bark could easily be peeled away at that location, exposing more of the rusty, powdery interior (Maple 6).

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

That rusty powder is the spores from the pathogen that killed your tree. Wash your hands before touching any other trees and remove the dead trunk from the vicinity of your other trees.

 

[JBL]

10-4; will do. I thought it was some sort of fungus, but was hoping otherwise... I did go ahead and spray a prophylactic dose of Mancozeb on all the other trees yesterday.

 

[penumbra]

It's sounding more like nectria canker, which indeed is a fungus for which there is no known cure. I am sorry this happened to you, it has an interesting trunk. Safest thing to do is to burn the plant, or secondarily, double bag it in plastic and discard it in the trash. Everything around this plant should be sterilized. Bleach is the go to but if you have to treat plants bleach will kill them and peroxide is a better choice.
About 35 years ago when I was the staff horticulturist for a large development firm, I had to diagnose why a couple of beech trees were dying at a large office building. The signs were small peeling bark areas on the trunk with a reddish color. I took samples and sent them to a lab and it was diagnosed positive for one of the two types of nectria. The agent responsible for the testing told me that the disease entered through mechanical damage which was likely pruning cuts. It is a fungal disease. Long and short of it was that the entire row 6 of beech trees had to be removed. To this day I am terrified by this disease and keep a watchful eye.

 

[JBL]

It's sounding more like nectria canker, which indeed is a fungus for which there is no known cure. I am sorry this happened to you, it has an interesting trunk. Safest thing to do is to burn the plant, or secondarily, double bag it in plastic and discard it in the trash. Everything around this plant should be sterilized. Bleach is the go to but if you have to treat plants bleach will kill them and peroxide is a better choice.
About 35 years ago when I was the staff horticulturist for a large development firm, I had to diagnose why a couple of beech trees were dying at a large office building. The signs were small peeling bark areas on the trunk with a reddish color. I took samples and sent them to a lab and it was diagnosed positive for one of the two types of nectria. The agent responsible for the testing told me that the disease entered through mechanical damage which was likely pruning cuts. It is a fungal disease. Long and short of it was that the entire row 6 of beech trees had to be removed. To this day I am terrified by this disease and keep a watchful eye.

Thanks for the background information!

 

[LemonBonsai]

I had started a cutting of a weeping willow last year, it went through 2 winters just fine, budded out this spring, then one day I came home from work and all its leaves were curled and crispy, then a day later the trunk was dead. I still dont know what happened but I just assumed it was some kind of disease or fungus

 

[penumbra]

I had started a cutting of a weeping willow last year, it went through 2 winters just fine, budded out this spring, then one day I came home from work and all its leaves were curled and crispy, then a day later the trunk was dead. I still dont know what happened but I just assumed it was some kind of disease or fungus

Sounds very much like it dried out. Disease is unlikely to cause "one day I came home from work and all its leaves were curled and crispy, then a day later the trunk was dead."

 

[LemonBonsai]

Sounds very much like it dried out. Disease is unlikely to cause "one day I came home from work and all its leaves were curled and crispy, then a day later the trunk was dead.

Must have been something else then, cause it didnt dry out.

 

[penumbra]

Must have been something else then, cause it didnt dry out.

Root rot? Was it sitting in water day after day?

 

[LemonBonsai]

Root rot? Was it sitting in water day after day?

I thought thats what it was, but after it was dead I pulled it out to examine the roots and they didnt look like they were dead. It didnt look like they were growing which was odd but yea not dead. It was sitting in a shallow tray of water cause it dries out to quick without the tray. Weird cause last year i had it in water too and the thing thrived in there.

 

[penumbra]

I thought thats what it was, but after it was dead I pulled it out to examine the roots and they didnt look like they were dead. It didnt look like they were growing which was odd but yea not dead. It was sitting in a shallow tray of water cause it dries out to quick without the tray. Weird cause last year i had it in water too and the thing thrived in there.

Sorry my friend........ I don't know.