Sunburst Locust- Yellowing and brown spotting

13 years ago

Hello:

I recently planted a healthy sunburst locust on my property in full sun. About a month after planting the following things have occurred.

1-3 leaves per cluster have turned yellow and are now dying off. This is not the coloration normal with the sunburst and only seems to affect a few leaves per cluster.

There is 1 cluster of new growth but it grew in reddish and dwarfed around 3 weeks ago and does not show any signs of greening up and growing.

There are little brown spots over all of the leaves. They are roughly the side of a pen dot.

The tree was planted in a 3'x3' hole filled with 3mix and black earth. The surrounding ground is solid clay and limestone.

We have had a parched summer and have had to water the lawn quite a bit.

Lawn Boy just came around and sprayed for chinch bug and applied a liquid fertilizer. But this problem started before that took place.

Any ideas on what this is and how to treat it would be most welcome.

Cheers

BOQ

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Comments (4)

dsieber
13 years ago
How have you been watering the tree vs the lawn? It could be either too little/much.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
First, there shouldn't be anything in the planting hole save native soil. That almost certainly is affecting water flow and saturating the root ball, which the spots on lvs might indicate. As the tree is in transplant shock, you shouldn't expect all this new growth anyway, esp not now with a likely saturated root ball.

Second, you don't say how large the tree was. Likely 3x3 is not large enough, as you want minimum twice the size of root ball, not a fixed size.

Third, you don't need to (over)pay some company to spray willy-nilly, esp wasting your money fertilizing a stressed tree. Cease this activity PDQ.

Fourth, honeylocust doesn't like to be dug and sit out waiting, hopefully this was in a pot. Combine a B&B being unhappy with the unfortunate planting in the heat of summer and a tree being unhappy in these conditions is not a surprise.

Fifth, the tree needs attention and special watering, not overspray from a lawn. Stick your finger in and see if it is getting adequate moisture, don't assume.

That's what I see with the scant info provided.

Dan
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teenamarie
13 years ago
We had this exact problem with both our locust trees. I can't remember what the cause was. It was a problem with the leaves and we had to spray them for two years. Even the second year they were much better and were perfectly healthy by the third year. I know it was a typical problem with locust trees. Any local nursery should be able to tell you what the problem is with a verbal description over the phone.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
a stressed tree should never be sprayed with anything ... that would just increase its stress ..... it would be akin to screaming at someone who is stressed out ....

imho .. it transplant shock ... improper watering .. and improper planting in a clay cauldron ....

see dans notes above ..

whether or not it will survive is left to the winds of fate ....

ken

Sunburst Locust- Yellowing and brown spotting

Comments (4)

dsieber

Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)

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teenamarie

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

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