My Tree has a BOO BOO

[LovelyLadyLux]

When I moved in here this tree was flourishing. Last summer we had record drought and the entire back half of the tree went brown. This summer the front half closest to the fence budded out nicely but now ....... I'm thinking this tree is done, gone, over and out.



It IS an Arbutus tree aka Madrona. Here we're not allowed to chop them down or dig one up so am not really too sure what is going to happen to this one.

Can't think of anything at all I can do to revive it.

[Horus]

Looks dead to me.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Me too. I think it is going to remain as a big leafless perch for all the birds.

[Mad Dilys]

I think there is a chance, if the soil can be kept moist, that it may shoot again from close to the ground.

I have seen this with avocado, almond, oh, quite a few - younger, smaller trees than yours may even break off low to the ground, then pop up the following year. I remember a 30 foot high conifer, many years ago doing the same as yours - first one half died back and the following year total. The owners didn't get round to removing it and to everyone's surprise year 3/4 the whole tree was covered in a pale green mist of new growth. After another 5 years it was hard to see any permanent damage. Good luck with your Arbutus.

[Horus]

You could always drape it in baubles at Christmas

[Ruby Slippers]

Isn't it this tree that produces the fruit to make the alcoholic drink Medronho (sp?)

[LovelyLadyLux]

@RS - I don't know if this tree does give anything to produce an alcoholic product. In a way I'm sure if it did we wouldn't have any left standing! Will query this - I don't know.

@MD - In terms of keeping this tree moist - I do know that they have tap roots and while you can't see it from my photo about - ohhhh - 15 feet away at the base is the marsh so I'd assume it has been able to tap water (maybe but maybe not). Last summer when we had the mega drought the marsh behind me never did dry up and LOTS of other small lakes about here did. I do water the gardens I've put in on the front side of the fence (and DID water last year) but ?

I'm actually hoping like you say that it will shoot out new growth albeit even from the bottom. This tree is sort of a main feature of my back yard and if it turns into one big dead stick - hmmmm.

Everything on the other side of the fence is claimed as Eco Preserve. I can't touch it (although I DO have permission to remove these (blackberries) that have a really nasty thorn. These are wild everywhere, the City cannot keep up with taking them out and they're absolutely awful if they attach to you. God forbid you actually FALL into a clump as you WILL come out worse for wear.



These bushes get huge and there is no way you can get close enough to remove them so the trick is to keep them cut down in the first place. My neighbor gave up the ghost and so she has no access from her yard to the marsh as these blackberries have grown in solid.

I digress but I do hope this tree might come back. It is always full of hummingbirds and other birds.

Interestingly with this tree the wood is super hard. Very difficult to even break a branch off of it.

Will see how it goes. Keeping my fingers crossed it will kick back or new shoots will appear.

[Horus]

Just a thought, when the fence was being erected was there any concrete poured neaby say to support the posts or to make steps?

[LovelyLadyLux]

@Horus - the fence was put up before my time here but the fence kind of jogs around the tree and it would only be enough cement to stand a fence post. There are no steps poured or anything like that.

I've had a guy put up landscape ties (just a couple months ago) and back fill with some of the rocks around here on bottom and then looser gravel on top to MAKE steps down but they don't really go near the truck of the tree either.

Haven't noticed any bugs or caterpillar nests on it - dunno what is up with it. These trees grow naturally here and usually thrive so am not sure why this one has suddenly opted to bite the bullet.

[Horus]

I am thinking that if they are endemic to your area and if it is not nutrient rich where you live, then maybe any small change to the chemical make up of the soil may affect it.

[LovelyLadyLux]

@H - I hear what you're suggesting. It is possible that sufficient whatever from the cement has leeched into the ground and has affected the tree. I'll have to specifically look at how far from the fence post the tree is.

[Horus]

Lime would possible do it especilly if your soil is naturally 'acid'

[Jayway]

We have medronho here, I pick them every year. But they are huge bushes around a couple of carob trees, I have been here ten years and they have never grown up, just outwards - (easy picking)

[Ruby Slippers]

Yes, I remember trying this drink when I was in Portugal, Jay. I don't drink but just had a sip. It was like liquid fire!

[LovelyLadyLux]

I Google'd medronho tree and these are not those.

I was Googling "Madrona Disease" and came across this article from 2011 so not too far. On reading it it seems my tree might be suffering a fungus attack :

Are the madronas dying?

Twisted and curled, their peeling bark a patina of reddish gold, madrona trees are for many here a beloved symbol of the islands’ uniqueness and stubborn independence. They thrive in rocky soil, perched along the cliffs, enduring beating rain and wind.

Entirely ornamental, their berries are inedible and their wood isn’t much use for firewood or building things. Yet we adore them, the only native broad-leafed evergreen tree.

This year, “we’ve been getting a lot of calls from all the islands,” said San Juan County WSU Extension office manager Susan Herrera. “People are concerned... This seems to be the worst year that we have had for the madronas; they look like they’re dying.”

The past few years have been tough on the graceful trees, also called Madrone or Arbutus. Many are diseased, with brown or missing leaves and ugly black cankers on their trunks and limbs. Local arborists and WSU researchers alike say they are concerned and actively studying the problem; on the other hand they don’t expect the trees to die out completely.

Marianne Elliott, plant pathologist at WSU Puyallup, sent out a request this year to the Pacific Northwest’s arboreal community, saying, “This year the Pacific madrones appear to have more severe foliar blight symptoms than usual” and asking for help mapping the blight. (Photos of foliar leaf blight are online at http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/ppo/madrone ... t_2011.htm.)

Local arborists are more concerned about cankers.

“We have seen 18 or so leaf diseases and two major cankering diseases over the past few years, and it’s been getting worse,” said Orcas arborist Herlwyn Lutz.

Lopez Island arborist Fred Ellis said canker-causing natrassia and fusicoccum fungi stop up the capillaries in the cambium so that fungicides cannot penetrate and protect the trees.

“It’s a choking disease,” he said.

Orcas arborist John Olson said he’s observed rampant blight due to several fungi in the past few years but has not seen whole areas die out, as with sudden oak death.

“These diseases have cycles,” he said. “They’ll be present for a time and then they’ll recede... but it’s a big concern to arborists and botanists that the diseases are spreading.”

San Juan island master gardener Jim Cooper, in a paper called “What’s Wrong with my Madrone?”, wrote that the most lethal disease may be phytophthora cactorum, a fungus that causes root and collar rots to girdle and kill the trees.

Elliot is currently researching whether climate change and management practices like fire suppression may be a factor for the diseases.

Lutz said treatment of diseased trees is expensive and won’t necessarily work; phosphoric acid can forestall the cankering, but only if applied in time.

Beyond that, madronas are best off left well alone. The arborists advised taking care not to damage the trees or their roots, and said not to water, fertilize or chemically spray them.

“Like other native trees, [they] need well drained soil,” Lutz said. “People have killed them by trying to landscape or plant lawns around them.”

Lutz added that much of the browning observed by residents of late is actually due not to disease, but to an early freeze last November, advising residents to wait until new growth emerges, before removing limbs or trees as “dead.”

Although the trees are finicky once grown, some say they are easy to grow from seed on location.

To help map the location of the blight, contact Elliott at melliott2@wsu.edu or visit http://goo.gl/gVTKN.

[Horus]

We have had the same in the UK of late, with various species being attacked by fungus or beetles.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Doesn't seem there is much that can be done. IF it does totally die I'll think about what I can do to make it look OK. We're not even allowed to cut down dead ones here but if it does die I might climb up into it and hang a few bird houses (not that they'd be used) but just to make it look a bit more decorative and maybe hopefully like I WANTED it to look dead out there