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My large sugar maples are dying! Help

tropicalplantpaul

17 years ago

Help, over the past few years my large sugar maples have contracted something.. the bark on the trunks split open and black subtance forms (looks like it was burnt) than red and white fugus is formig on the tree. on truck and branches the tree is dying.. and it spreading to other nearby trees HELP HELP!!

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Comments (3)

spruceman
17 years ago
Sorry you are not getting any responses here. I know sugar maples--they are an important component of my timberlands--but I don't recognize the problem your trees are having. Check with your local AG extension or state forestry service. Maybe they can help. If you find out anything, I would like to hear back from you.

--Spruce
myersphcf
17 years ago
Spruce gives good advice please be advised that it's not that we peeps don't care ...just probably don't know or are not sure and don't want to give bad advice...the worse thing for you is to get info that is not correct ...if you can get an expert to come and look at your trees even if you have to pay for it you will be better served IMHO...GOOD LUCK and as Spruce said let us know what you find out it may help someone else down the road ...David
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That would be 'Oshio-beni' and it is a small shrub-like tree with a rounded canopy and a very low branching habit. Removing the lower branches to create a more "tree-like" appearance would NOT enhance the appearance of this particular maple cultivar, IMO. Exposure to the late freeze a large part of this country experienced around Easter could have had a pretty detrimental affect on this tree.......I'm not surprised the nursery was offering it at a bargain price. That plus its age and very mature size makes it a risky candidate for a 100% successful transplanting. I hope you got some sort of guarantee, as $1000 is a lot of cash to layout for what may best be a 50-50 proposition. If the so-called 'dead' twigs or stems are a pale or silvery gray, then they are indeed most likely dead. This can be confirmed by bending the twigs - if they snap cleanly and with a dry, tannish interior, they are dead wood. Also, viable twigs and stems will have distinct buds on them. Rubbing off a couple of buds will expose the interior, which should be succulent rather than dry and brown. All dead wood can/should be removed and there is really no restriction as to when this can be done. Other pruning (which I don't recommend for this cultivar) should wait until December or January when the tree is fully dormant but before the sap starts moving. My final suggestion is if you have never pruned a tree before, a Japanese maple of this age, size and potential value is not a place to start :-) Hire a professional or take some classes, preferrably those that emphasize Japanese maples, and from a very well-qualified instructor. As a 20 year nurseryperson and landscape professional, I've seen more trees and shrubs mangled - often beyond redemption - by well-intentioned but uninformed homeowners who do not understand how, when and why to prune. Know what you are doing before you start or leave it to the professionals.
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Just happened to think, the nursery guy's advice sounds odd to me. All advice I've read and received first hand from nursery professionals is that newly planted trees need copious amounts of water *every day* for the first full month. The rain we've been having should have been a boon for your tree, not a hazard. While maples do not thrive in swampy areas, a lot of water immediately following transplanting are exactly what the tree doctor ordered. I have to wonder if the nursery guy is trying to avoid having to replace a tree. Also if you planted this tree in May (2 months ago), conditions should have been optimal. Did you water it each day during the first month it was planted? My guess would be that, if anything, your tree might have needed more water at this critical time. I planted a new flowering crabapple this past May, and there were very few days during that month that I did not need to carry my bucket of water out to the tree. (It is growing splendidly now.)
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spruceman
17 years ago
I have just another thought--what you are observing may not be symptoms of something that is killing your trees. Instead, you may be observing the secondary effects of their sickness and dying. By that I mean that where the bark is splitting and the fungal spores/fruiting bodies are coming out may be just evidence of rot that has started AFTER something so severely weakened the trees that portions of the trunk have died, allowing the fungal infections to start.

If this is true, then you have to investigate what may have caused these trees to be weakened, and it may not be a disease, as such. You say that this problem seems to be spreading from tree to tree. That may be possible, but what I would look at first would be the soil, the water, and the possible effect of pesticides. Has there been any soil disturbance/soil compaction, etc. in the area where these trees are growing? Has there been any unusual drought? Any unusual wet periods or flooding around these trees? And perhaps most importantly, have any lawn treatments been used in the area where these trees are growing? Any weed killers, etc.? These can be very dangerous to the health of trees.

--Spruce

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