Is your tree changing color when it should be green? Tree foliage will change color for several reasons. Some of those reasons may lead to the death of the tree, while others are merely seasonal.

toddsmariettatreeservices.com gathered information on why trees change color, and when a color change signals severe problems with trees.

Deciduous vs. Evergreen Trees

In a very general sense, trees may be classified in one of two categories; deciduous or evergreen. When their foliage changes color, it can be interpreted as:

Deciduous Trees – A deciduous tree keeps its green color throughout spring and summer. During autumn, its leaves will change from green to vibrant yellow, orange, red, or purple before falling to the ground.

This color change occurs as the days shorten and temperatures drop. As the leaves cease their food making process, the chlorophyll breaks down, the green color fades away, and so begins the fall color change and leaf drop spectacle.

This process also enables the tree to conserve energy as it prepares to enter dormancy throughout late autumn and winter.

Evergreen Trees – As the name suggests, these trees remain green throughout the year. Typically, they will drop small amounts of foliage as new growth takes its place during the spring and summer months.

While healthy evergreen trees slow down considerably during autumn and winter months, they retain their foliage and green color.

Diseased, Infested, and Dying Trees

When a deciduous tree changes color during spring or summer months, or an evergreen changes color at any time, there is cause for concern. One or a combination of the following may be causing the tree to decline in health or die:

Drought – Drought conditions can happen any time throughout the year, and trees viscerally respond to hydraulic failure.

When there is a lack of water within a tree, the entire crown may be affected in the following ways:

• Chlorosis (loss of color) of the foliage
• Wilting
• Premature leaf drop
• Hardening of branches and twigs
• Self-pruning (shedding of entire branches)

If a regular water supply is not restored to the tree at the onset of drought symptoms, the tree will likely die.

Solution: Maintain a watering pattern throughout the year, increasing the frequency during dry stretches and decreasing during rainy seasons.

Root Rot – Excess water may deprive tree roots of getting the air that they need, leading to decay. To avoid root rot, it is best to only water trees when the soil becomes dry, and to plant the tree in well-drained soil.

Symptoms of root rot are very similar to those of drought, including chlorosis, and premature leaf drop, as both ailments cause hydraulic failure within the tree.

One of the significant differences between drought and root rot is the destabilization of a tree affected by root rot. Without firm roots to anchor the tree, the lightest of storm activity may cause it to topple.

Solution: Avoid overwatering trees and plants located in poorly drained soil. If root rot has already occurred, contact a tree service professional to evaluate the situation and recommend a course of action.

Heart Rot – Trees are susceptible to heart-rotting fungi that produce a lightweight, soft, spongy, stringy, or powdery heart decay. Signs that a tree is rotting from the inside are:

• Leaf chlorosis
• Wilting
• Premature leaf drop
• Dead and brittle branches
• Mushroom conks growing from the trunk
• Bark abnormalities (swelling, deep cracks, or holes)

While trees are very good at compartmentalizing (isolating) damaged or diseased portions of themselves, some fungi can cause massive amounts of potentially fatal damage before the tree can react.

Solution: The following will help a tree avoid heart rot:

• Promote the tree’s health (watering, pruning, fertilizing, mulching)
• Prune in late fall or early winter
• Avoid bark damage
• Remove storm-damaged branches

Trees with symptoms of heart rot should be evaluated and treated or removed by a tree service professional, as soon as possible to avoid severe damages should the tree topple or collapse.

If your tree is dying, learn more about what you can do at toddsmariettatreeservices.com/my-tree-is-dying-what-do-i-do/

Anthracnose – Anthracnose can attack a tree (fruit trees are more susceptible) at any stage of its growth and can affect leaves, stems, pods, fruits, and roots. The symptoms of anthracnose are:

• Small irregular yellow, brown, or black spots that expand and merge together on foliage. Severe infections can affect entire portions of the crown.
• Cankers on stems and branches that cause extreme defoliation and rotting of fruit and roots.
• Fruits develop sunken circular spots that darken with age, eventually producing gelatinous pink spore masses.

Solution: The following can help prevent an anthracnose infection:

• Promote your tree’s health (watering, pruning, fertilizing, mulching)
• Transplant only healthy seedlings
• Remove and destroy infected tree parts
• Harvest unripe but mature fruits
• Plants species that are resistant to anthracnose disease
• Keep the landscape free of weeds

If your tree has become severely infected with anthracnose, the best containment of the disease may be the complete removal and destruction of the tree. Hire a tree service professional to evaluate the tree’s situation, and risk to surrounding vegetation before deciding on a course of action.

You can learn more about tree diseases and treatment at toddsmariettatreeservices.com/5-marietta-ga-tree-diseases-identification-treatment/

Insect Infestation – Severe infestations by honeydew-producing aphids, leaf-consuming caterpillars, trunk burrowing beetles, and other opportunistic insects can lead to a tree being overstressed and dying. Symptoms of an insect infestation may include:

• Chlorosis of the foliage of a portion of or the entire crown
• Wilting and leaf drop
• Damaged or eaten foliage
• The appearance of sooty mold on infested foliage
• The presence of ants (colonizing and tending to aphids)
• Severe premature leaf drop
• Burrowed circular holes in branch or trunk bark

Solution: Upon detection of an insect infestation, the infected and surrounding trees should be treated and protected with:

• Insect traps (tree bands, ant traps, beetle traps, etc.)
• Neem oil spray
• Insecticide

In cases where beetles and other burrowing insects are involved, a tree service professional should be contracted to survey the tree, property, and surrounding landscape to attempt to gain full control over the infestation.

Climbing Vines – If left uncontrolled, climbing vines are capable of ascending to the top of a tree and spreading across its crown. As the vine spreads its foliage, it absorbs the sunlight otherwise intended for the tree, leading to the following:

• Leaf chlorosis
• Wilting
• Premature leaf drop
• Nutrient deficiency (weakened health)

When vines take over the canopy of a tree, you may see green, healthy foliage (from the vine) mixed with wilting or dying foliage (from the tree). As the tree weakens, it will become susceptible to insect infestation and disease, compounding its health decline and hastening its death.

Solution: Sever the vine from its root system near the ground and let it die off. However, don’t try to remove the vine from the tree. As the vine was climbing, it anchored to the tree’s bark, any attempt to pull the vine down may severely damage the bark, resulting in the girdling of the tree.

To learn more on how to save your tree from clinging vines, read toddsmariettatreeservices.com/saving-trees-clinging-vines/

Trees Changing Colors

Is your tree turning yellow or brown when it’s supposed to be green? There are several reasons that trees will change color, and many of those reasons may indicate serious problems that can kill the tree.

In this article, you discovered why trees change color in the fall, and problems that may lead them to change color and suffer leaf drop in the spring or summer months.

While it is normal for deciduous trees to change color in the fall, ignoring an off-season color change or leaf drop can lead to the death of your tree.

Sources:
https://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/leaves/leaves.htm
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/chlorosis/
http://www.oisat.org/pests/diseases/fungal/anthracnose.html
https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/be_careful_where_you_spray_that_stuff

You may be unknowingly spreading disease all over your landscape. Those yellow, brown, or black spots on your tree may be anthracnose. Avoid hosing down your tree to try and clean it, you could be spreading this fungi everywhere!

Over time and repeated attacks, anthracnose can weaken your tree’s health and provide an opportunity for other disease and infestation. Once identified, tree anthracnose should be treated immediately.

toddsmariettatreeservices.com gathered this information to help you identify, treat, prevent anthracnose, and uncover the fungi responsible for causing it.

What Is the Cause of Anthracnose?

Tree anthracnose is caused by a fungal infection fueled by optimal weather conditions. The following are some of the fungi responsible for anthracnose and some of the tree species they infect:

• Apiognomonia Errabunda – Attacks tilia, Quercus, beech, oak, lindens, and Fagus (ficus) trees.
• Apiognomonia Veneta – Attacks london planes and sycamores.
• Colletotrichum Gloeosporioides – Attacks ash, tulip, and cacao or cocoa trees.
• Discula Fraxinea – Attacks maple, ash, and fringetree.
• Glomerella Fungi Species – Attacks banana, mango, papaya, and lemons.
• Gnomonia Fungi Species – Attacks oak, maple, sycamore, walnut, ash, and dogwood trees.
• Marssonina Fungi Species – Attacks aspen, poplars, and cottonwood trees.
• Stegophora ulmea – Attacks elm trees.

The above-mentioned fungi overwinter in either the leaves that have fallen to the ground, or in cankers on the tree’s bark. In springtime, the fungi’s reproduction process is favored by cool temperatures and prolonged periods of rain.

As the fungi generate spores, splashing rain, overhead watering, and/or the wind disperses them to leaf buds, shoots, or young leaves. The fungi then colonize the tissue of the new host and begin producing spores to be carried off in the same manner.

As long as temperatures remain mild and moist conditions persist, the fungi will continue to colonize leaf tissue, produce spores, and reinfect the same leaves or spread to others. Without intervention, this process can repeat itself throughout spring and into early summer.

Anthracnose and other fungal diseases that attack trees need water (moisture) to grow, propagate, and colonize new hosts. These diseases are less common in warmer regions that have less rainfall.

What Are the Symptoms of Anthracnose?

While anthracnose can be caused by several different species of fungi, the symptoms are the same. Here is how to identify an anthracnose infection:

• Bud death
• Twig death
• Dead spots on leaves
• Dead tissue along leaf veins
• Dead blotches between leaf veins
• Unseasonal or premature leaf-drop
• Lesions known as cankers in tree bark (open wounds)

A common symptom among all of the anthracnose diseases is the presence of acervuli. Use a magnifying glass to examine the underside of infected leaves. You are looking for dark colored pimple-like fruiting structures (acervuli).

In infected trees, these structures may also be found peppered along dead twigs.

How Do You Treat Anthracnose?

While damages resulting from anthracnose infections are generally inconsequential to the overall health of a tree, repeated attacks from the disease year after year can weaken a tree’s defenses enough to leave it susceptible to other diseases and insect infestations.

The following measures will help to treat the disease and reduce the potential for infection in the coming springtime:

Don’t Spray the Foliage – Anthracnose fungi depend on splashing water and wind to carry them from one host to another. If you try to wash off the foliage, you are doing more to help the fungi live than to save your tree.

Fallen Leaves – Collect and destroy fallen leaves. These dead leaves (if left on the ground) provide an optimal location for fungi to overwinter.

Pruning – For the fungi and acervuli found in blighted twigs, these areas should be pruned back and destroyed.

Crown thinning will allow more air and light to reach the inner branches and foliage, which in turn will help fight against the fungi.

Depending on the extent of the infection, excessive pruning may be necessary. If this is the case, contact a professional tree service to evaluate the situation.

Tip: To destroy the pruned portion of the tree and/or leaves, light up the fire pit or have a bonfire.

After pruning any diseased plant, shrub, or tree, make certain that your tools are sanitized before storing them or using them again. Use a 1 part bleach to 6 parts water solution to wash your tools.

Fungicides – In areas or with trees that have a history of anthracnose infections, fungicides can be used to further curtail its spreading.

Knowing the species of your tree will help you select the right fungicide. Many of them are labeled for use against specific fungi, and the fungi which cause anthracnose are typically host species specific.

How Can Anthracnose Be Prevented?

By providing plants and trees with well drained and enriched soil, nutrient-rich fertilizer, sufficient water, and annual pruning, you will help them maintain a vigorous defense system and enable them to resist diseases more handily.

If you use a sprinkler or overhead watering system, consider modifying it or replacing it with a drip system. Drip systems don’t create the splashing effect necessary to carry fungus spores from host to host.

Finally, take action against other fungal invaders and pests to prevent the tree’s health from weakening.

Tree Health and Disease Prevention

There is more to preventing tree diseases than just hosing down your trees. To stop the spread of anthracnose and prevent its return, it takes an understanding of what it is and how it spreads from host to host.

In this article, you discovered what causes anthracnose, how to correctly identify it by common characteristics, how to treat it, and the steps to prevent it.

Anthracnose, through repeated attacks, will eventually weaken your tree and allow other more invasive diseases and tree pests to attack. Treatment and prevention measures should begin as soon as this disease is positively identified.

For more signs and symptoms of a troubled tree, visit http://www.toddsmariettatreeservices.com/troubled-tree-signs-symptoms/

Sources:

http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7420.html
https://extension.psu.edu/anthracnose-on-shade-trees
https://wiki.bugwood.org/HPIPM:Anthracnose_Diseases
https://www.ppws.vt.edu/content/dam/ppws_vt_edu/extension/plant-disease-clinic/files/clinic-report-2013.pdf
https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/25356

Photchana Trakunsukharat, Department of Agriculture, Thailand [CC BY 3.0 au], via Wikimedia Commons