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Northwestern Gardening

Fear that it's Verticillium wilt!

15 years ago

I have a red maple at the corner of my house that showed signs of sporadic leafing out last year, but by late summer it was covered in leaves.

This summer it's doing the same thing but now I notice some dead branches. Do others here agree that the tree has VW? Any tests I can do to confirm it before I have the tree removed.

The only damage this tree has suffered was some deep scratches on one side of the trunk a couple of years ago. It appeared to be caused by an animal..........I'm assuming deer.

Last question: any suggestion of what I can plant in its spot that will be resistant to the VW, yet be similar to the maple in maturity? The location is the NE corner of the house.

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Comments (6)

Embothrium
15 years ago
Welcome to Japanese maple cultivars. I don't plant them anymore. If it were mine I would take it out, if you would rather struggle with the problem first find out what it is - I would try Washington State University Cooperative Extension.
Embothrium
15 years ago
For an overview (notice more than one listing of maple as being among those plants afflicted)...

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning out Disease to Keep Trees Healthy
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I have something that I think might be VW on my tomatoes. I started a thread in the Tomatoes forum (Help! I have no idea what is going on.) with pictures. Take a look and see if it looks similar to what you went through with this plant. My toms are also in pots, but the trees around my apt look like they have some kind of disease, so I'm starting to think maybe it spread via wind/rain/squirrels/me/etc.
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Any other info you want to give re wilting of single branches or whole plant and whether you've grown there before and ever had this problem. Unfortunately, it's the whole plant. Several of them, actually. I've never grown here before. And could it be yellow leaves from waterlogged soils or whatever? Nah. I haven't watered much, and we've had some rain, but not a ton. I don't think it's water related. Only thing that I can think of is that overcrowding led to poor ventilation led to ??? I don't know that it's F or V or EB or LB. I just looked at the various picutres and thought that the pics of V looked most similar. I'm very sad about the whole dilemma. :( Thanks again for your responses. One last question. How do I know to yank or not to yank?
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although I'm not an expert I think that you do NOT have any wilt disease first of all it's unlikely to get any wilt disease in a container with fresh soil (not unheard of though) second of all there was no yellowing and it wasn't the whole plant that wilted. also a black container will absorb a lot of heat and cuase the plant to wilt. try watering your tomato and wrapping some white plastic around the container or painting it white. see if that helps. DLF
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susan_westseattle
15 years ago
I had a vine maple that had it, probably from the time I planted it. One branch after another started rapidly dying off. I was told that if you cut an afflicted branch, you can see black streaking in the wood which was the case in this tree. After some agonizing, watching branch after branch die and fruitless searching for a cure, I finally took the whole tree out. And, after checking for plants that are resistant, I replaced it with a jacquemonti birch which is thriving. Good luck to you!
mdvaden_of_oregon
15 years ago
I'd cull it.

As bboy wrote, I don't plant them much myself either.

We bought a house with a nice big red one about 15' tall with a nice round-headed habit. That's plenty.

Look at Stewartia, Chitalpa and maybe a dogwood.

Ever seen Smoke Tree properly pruned to become a tree and not a bush? If you can find a taller one, that might be an option.

#16 in the album link below is a tree formed Smoke Tree / Cotinus

Here is a link that might be useful: Album > go to about frame #16 for Smoke Tree in
annzgw
Original Author
15 years ago
Sorry.........I lost track of my post and failed to thank everyone for their suggestions!

I had an arborist look at the tree shortly after I posted and he agreed that it was most likely wilt. I pruned all the dead branches out of the tree and gave it one more year. Truth is, I was busy with other projects and really didn't want to tackle replacing the tree.
It's now a year later and it's condition has worsened. Lots of suckers, and few leaves are on the tips of some branches and the rest looks dead. I'm taking it out next week!

mdvaden........I have a Smoke Tree in the back yard that I've pruned into a tree. It's one of my favorites and I love the many colors it shows thru the seasons.

Anyone know if Japanese Snowbell is resistant to the wilt?
botann
15 years ago
There are two other causes that are mistaken for Verticillium Wilt. Not enough water during the summer will cause some branches to die back. The other is too much sun on the trunk causing sunburn and damaging the bark. A tree planted at the corner of a house may not be getting enough water to grow in a healthy manner. That, combined with a lot of sun on the trunk, can be disastrous.
The obvious solution is to move the tree to a more favorable location.

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