Ken, routine maintenance-checking for crossing branches, dead wood etc. Sterilize? H*ll no lol. Winter was normal for here. No extreme cold or warm, ice or snow, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes or earthquakes. 25 years is old.... yes it is, but more than half are younguns no more than 10. Epicormic growth-usually caused by some stressor, whatever is killing of the branches. Never a good sign. The land was formerly in hay, now mowed as "lawn". No ferts since last hayed 10 or more years ago. No grade changes, heaviest equipment is a lawn tractor. Everything I grow is as you say, on free range. Survival of the fittest, the law of the jungle. Only thing out of the ordinary was THE GREAT EASTER FREEZE OF 2007. Temps dropped to between 15F and 20F after several weeks of summer temps. That was the first time I ever saw grass turn BLACK. Even after that nightmare, the redbuds only suffered very minor tip dieback and fully refoliated. How many...too many to count. About 35 acres. Arktrees, I haven't taken any cross sections of wood. There doesn't appear to be any borers, at least as the causative agent. No signs of lesions or fruiting fungal bodies (yet). That is what has me stumped. These trees, young and old, were the picture of health last growing season. I've never seen anything like this before. I am hoping this is not another pestilence from that Most Favored Nation to the east. Ken

Deanna -- you're saying you can't post a pix, so I'm guessing you mean no digicamera, right? BUT do you have a flatbed scanner? If you do, take some of the "bad" leaves, and put them in the scanner, and scan both the top and bottom sides. Save those images as jpgs, and you can use photobucket to post. OR you can send the jpgs to me, and I will do that for you. OR you can send them to Baldo Villegas. I'm suspecting you may have some downy mildew, but without seeing it, I dunno. Jeri

Sandy--What a beaut and congrats! It's so great to hear from you and know that you are able to get out there and get an emotional uplift from these creatures. You are amazing to do all this with two painful wrists.

I'm trying to figure out what ketchup smells like because it is not a choice on Help Me Find! Instead of typing the whole thing, I have had success with just copying then pasting the whole post.