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New England Gardening

Tree Leaves with black spots in clusters - help?

Kimberly Thompson

6 years ago

I have an issue with several trees in my back yard garden drying up and shedding leaves. Upon closer inspection they have clusters of small black circles made up of small black spots. It seems like it almost happened over night as today there are quite a few leaves on the lawn.

Additionally, we've never had an issue with our lawn but we are getting a lot of brown patches this year. We have irrigation and Trugreen comes to fertilize it on a regular basis.
I wonder if the two could be related. Thoughts?

Here are the leaves and trees...

And here's the grass...

Many thanks for any feedback you can provide!

Ugh,

Kimberly

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Comments (3)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years ago
Your tree is a maple and it has tar spot. It's a common fungal problem and while unsightly and can cause a lot of early leaf drop, it is not particularly harmful to an otherwise healthy tree.

It is aggravated by plentiful rainfall and that is likely the only connection to what's happening with the lawn - that is very likely a fungal issue as well. the Lawn Care forum has been inundated with posts about this issue this season. The next time Tru Green shows up, ask them to apply a lawn fungicide.
Kimberly Thompson thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
Kimberly Thompson
Original Author
6 years ago
I called trugreen this morning and will have them take a look and spray fungicide. And will keep irrigation off for a bit to let things dry out. Many thanks!
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alanc23
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I live in Newton. We have lots of Norway Maples, particularly along the streetsides. They all have that this year; doesn't seem to affect other maples. If the sap is still running, break off a leaf and check the stem. White sap means Norway.

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