The tree is about 25 years old. (Well planted, it was probably 10 years old from the nursery, I suppose)
The specific tree is Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. Lanceolata; and is located in the midwest, well within the range of this tree.
It’s similar to verticillium wilt, but I think that usually hits Maples. The leaves curl up, and look ‘wilted’ and about every year I lose a whole branch, which I’ve been pruning off in the late fall. Growth seems very sluggish. Something’s plugging up the xylem?? It’s also sending out “suckers” along the main trunk area (bad sign) I’ve heard about a sort of Ash ‘blight’ or a phytoplasm (not bacteria, not virus) agent that is hitting the Ash trees around here.
One possible vector to disease might be an extremely wet spring a few years ago (almost of a flood, I suppose) that might have killed off the roots. But this seems to be something else, since Green Ash will tolerate getting its feet wet, I’d think.
I’ve also heard about a treatment that uses Oxytetracycline with some success, if I have the diagnosis correct. If it’s not outrageously expensive, I’d like to try it. Anybody ever heard of this, and/or knows what I need to do? How is it applied, etc.,
It makes excellent firewood if I can’t take care of the problem. Shade trees sure take a long time to get there, so I hate to remove a tree unless I have to. Shade trees are something not appreciated till they’re gone.
Don’t Ask thanks, that’s exactly what I was looking for. I did fertilize it pretty well this spring, I wasn’t sure that helped or not. It seems to be doing better this year, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of some fairly heavy pruning I did last year.
I’ll have to invest in some more fertilizer stakes and irrigate this fall.
Even though this year was exceptionally dry, it’s been a terrible year for fungus. You should probably contact your local Agriculture Extension office, they know what’s going around.
Personally, I’d avoid those tree spike fertilizer things. I know a few people who have burned up their trees through overfertilization with those spikes. I prefer the Ross Root Feeder, which is a water injection gadget, it mixes the fertilizer with water and injects it right into the ground. But there are similar risks for overfertilization if you do it excessively. At least it’s diluted with water…
Thanks, Chas. that sounds like good advice. I’ve already found a couple web pages on these. I imagine my friendly lawn and garden shop has them as well.
The ‘tree spikes’ are kind of a pain, and I’d need about 50 or so due to the size of the tree. I can see where they might cause root burning.
Is there any benefit to fertilizing in September? (now)
I envisioned using the tree spikes hoping they would be utilized by the roots now, or at least the tree would have a good start come next spring. I’m definitely going to start a little bit of irrigation, a good, deep soaking for a day or so every few weeks. Apparently, fertilization and ample watering are about the only things I can do for the tree, given it’s either Ash Yellows, or more likely, Verticillium Wilt.
Yeah, most garden centers have them, I used to sell em when I was a kid and worked at my Dad’s greenhouse. They’re not just good for fertilizing , they’re a lot more efficient for watering than surface watering. But I have burst a few old rotten hoses while using them.
Yes fertilizing now will help. Trees need their nutrients to face the winter.
Good luck with the trees. When the trees and plants are in good shape, the whole environment is in good shape. My trees grew an astonishing amount this year. Maybe too much. I had to cut down a bunch of weed trees, some hawthornes that grew to 4 inches in diameter in just one year!
Oxytetracycline is an antibiotic that is (was) used in the treatment of acne in humans. It has largely been replaced by Minocin in the UK, since long term usage of Oxy was found to have an adverse effect on the stomach (and if your acne is really bad, you get the Roaccutane - ugh).
I have never heard of such a drug being administered to plants and trees, and I hope someone can enlighten me further on this in due course.
For the fertilising, sounds like in the US you use different methods to me in the UK. However, I concur with the diagnosis given by Chas.E above (and you better listen to the advice about scorching the roots!). To fertilise, I use a balance of home made compost, chicken manure and potash (or other high P & K product) top dressing in the Autumn and try to turn the soil around the base of the tree (without disturbing the roots) a few times in the year to help oxygenate the soil a bit.
This probablty doesn’t help, but I just heard on the news that biologists are baffled by a disease that seems to be sweeping through the ash population in Michigan. It’s spreading faster than Dutch Elm disease did, and they don’t know if it’s insect- or fungus-related. They said ash are affected by all kinds of nasty diseases, but they can’t figure out what this one is and it seems to be bad.
I had an ash tree that was like this, I ended up taking the whole tree down. It happened slowly, over the course of a few years, and I started out trying to save it by pruning out the damaged parts. The tree was misshapen, but still alive when a late-summer thunderstorm sent a large part of the already weakened tree crashing down. Even without the storm I had planned on removing the tree, as the pruning had destroyed the shape of it. It was very ugly, but provided some needed shade for my hostas.
It’s a serious problem with Ash trees, whatever it is exactly. But, watering and fertilizing might help keep it around a while longer. I bought the Ross Rood Feeder today and a $10.59 worth of the fertilizer tabs. It will take the whole box for this tree.
Like I said, I’ll have plenty of firewood if this doesn’t work out. Oh well. Thanks for the help, everyone.
