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Old 17-02-2005, 02:18 AM
Brian Allen
 
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Default Help me identify this tree problem

Hello,

I recently returned from a year of military duty and found my poor neglected
fledgling orchard in southwest Ohio has been seriously afflicted by some
type of a problem other than the expected deer damage and mouse girdling. I
was gone all last year, so the trees got no care whatsoever during that
time. Hopefully this is a common problem (and therefore will have a well
known solution), but I have not had any luck in identifying it. I work and
getting to the county extension office would be a bit of a pain, so I
thought the experts in this forum could probably identify my issue with a
glance. The problem affects many types of trees and is very widespread.
The symptoms are that the bark on the smaller branches and twigs appears to
be 'split', for a few to up to 16 or so inches in length. Affected branches
are mostly under about a half inch in diameter. There are actually wood
fibers protruding from the areas of split bark. The bark has grown up
around the split, indicating the problem probably occurred in the spring and
the branch continued to grow at a normal or nearly normal rate. The problem
seems to be affected by the sun as all the splits are on the undersides or
on the north sides of the branches. In my orchard nearly 100% of my 30 or
so trees are affected, including apple, plum, pear, peach, birch, and
cherry. Curiously I have one north star cherry which does not appear to
have the problem. Maple and birch trees are also affected along with some
of the native brush I cannot give the proper name for. Nut trees, cedars,
Osage (hedgewood), cottonwood, and sycamore do not appear to be affected. I
cannot find any evidence of insect damage, and the fact that the problem
appears on the shaded side of the branch leads me to suspect some type of
fungal rot, but I would like to pinpoint the exact type if possible.

Check out some pictures at http://home.earthlink.net/~drbjape/

Any help in identifying this would be appreciated. Any treatment ideas
would be welcome also, but once I can identify the problem I can probably
find the cure on the web or in the literature.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Brian


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Old 17-02-2005, 04:54 AM
Timothy
 
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On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 01:18:42 +0000, Brian Allen wrote:

Hello,

I recently returned from a year of military duty and found my poor
neglected fledgling orchard in southwest Ohio has been seriously afflicted
by some type of a problem other than the expected deer damage and mouse
girdling. I was gone all last year, so the trees got no care whatsoever
during that time. Hopefully this is a common problem (and therefore will
have a well known solution), but I have not had any luck in identifying
it. I work and getting to the county extension office would be a bit of a
pain, so I thought the experts in this forum could probably identify my
issue with a glance. The problem affects many types of trees and is very
widespread. The symptoms are that the bark on the smaller branches and
twigs appears to be 'split', for a few to up to 16 or so inches in length.
Affected branches are mostly under about a half inch in diameter. There
are actually wood fibers protruding from the areas of split bark. The
bark has grown up around the split, indicating the problem probably
occurred in the spring and the branch continued to grow at a normal or
nearly normal rate. The problem seems to be affected by the sun as all
the splits are on the undersides or on the north sides of the branches.
In my orchard nearly 100% of my 30 or so trees are affected, including
apple, plum, pear, peach, birch, and cherry. Curiously I have one north
star cherry which does not appear to have the problem. Maple and birch
trees are also affected along with some of the native brush I cannot give
the proper name for. Nut trees, cedars, Osage (hedgewood), cottonwood,
and sycamore do not appear to be affected. I cannot find any evidence of
insect damage, and the fact that the problem appears on the shaded side of
the branch leads me to suspect some type of fungal rot, but I would like
to pinpoint the exact type if possible.

Check out some pictures at http://home.earthlink.net/~drbjape/

Any help in identifying this would be appreciated. Any treatment ideas
would be welcome also, but once I can identify the problem I can probably
find the cure on the web or in the literature.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Brian


Good day Brian. Glad to see you made it back, hope you get to stay now.

You have a really strange problem runing through your orchard. I looked at
your pics and then I hit the books. At first, I thought you maybe seeing
the effects of bark blast due to freezing temps, but then I re-read your
post and seen that you stated that all affected limbs were north facing.
Winter damage is generally south western in it direction. After looking
through my master gardeners hand-outs, I went over to the hortsense site.

http://pep.wsu.edu/hortsense/
I would suspect that your trees are being affected anthracnose. Take a
peek at the hortsence site and see if it looks right to you. Here's the
direct link to the page in question:

http://pep.wsu.edu/hortsense/scripts...cat egoryID=3

Sorry, it's a large link address. The hortsense site uses frames so
linking to pages is a bit of a bugger.

Generally the ag office also houses the master gardeners office also. The
masters are volunteers and I'm sure someone would stop by your place and
take a peek for you. Or you could drop off some samples for the ag office
on your way to work ..ect. Take a gander at the warren county ag &
natural resources page to get their contact info.

http://warren.osu.edu/ag/ag.htm

Good luck.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com
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Old 17-02-2005, 04:58 AM
 
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I would need to see a more close up picture to be sure, but the
girdling could be caused by cicadas or tree hoppers. They both cause
damage when they lay eggs under the bark. Since the damage is on
several different species of trees, I would say it is probably not
caused by a pathogen. I know Ohio was one of the states affected
heavily by the periodical cicadas last year, maybe try googleing and
find some pictures to compare yours with.


Toad

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Old 18-02-2005, 01:55 AM
Brian Allen
 
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I took a look at some photos showing cicadia damage, and I think that is
what I have. I wasn't here to see the hatch, but my neighbors said they
were everywhere, so it makes sense that I would have some damage. Most of
my trees are quite small 3 years, but don't think it will kill anything.
At least it is nothing I have to worry about, not for another decade or so
anyway.

Thanks again to all who took the time to help.

Brian




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Old 21-02-2005, 11:24 PM
Wes Wilson
 
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Brian Allen wrote:
I took a look at some photos showing cicadia damage, and I think that is
what I have. I wasn't here to see the hatch, but my neighbors said they
were everywhere, so it makes sense that I would have some damage. Most of
my trees are quite small 3 years, but don't think it will kill anything.
At least it is nothing I have to worry about, not for another decade or so
anyway.

Thanks again to all who took the time to help.

Brian


Hi Brian -
I was just 'passing through' here so to speak and noticed your posted
question concerning your mysterious multi-varietal tree 'damage.'
Here's my thought on this:
I too have noticed similar signs of such damage over the years here on
my 'farmscape' (SW Missouri.) After wondering and worrying about this
for some time like you have - there came a day when I noticed a small
'sap-sucker' style woodpecker (a smallish bird, w/black & white feathers
and if male, a red dot on back of head?) hanging beneath one of these
small branches and pecking hard at the underside of the branch as it
regularly advanced along the branch - and on inspection I noticed that
it was apparently creating a trail of 'v-shaped' cuts through the bark -
as your pix also seems to show. Have you perhaps noticed any such
sapsuckers and/or wood peckers flying about in your orchard? I noticed
howeever, that these trees (primarily in my case, suqar maple, some
apples and 'lime' trees - tilias) - although affected like this,
remained healthy, despite this 'damage.'
Since observing this bird doing this and later seeing it revisit and
apparently 'inspect' these same areas for tidbits of food - I tend to
think that perhaps the sapsucker is creating an inviting place of false
security for insects. Whose eggs, larva or bodies it might later come
upon and perhaps 'harvest' as food.
So perhaps the damage they apparently cause may be balanced somehow by
them eating potentially even more 'damaging' parasitic insects? Do keep
in mind however that I'm not an expert on this and this is just a rather
'lay' opinion.
Perhaps now someone else will comment about their experiences? Good luck!
- Wes/MO

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Old 22-02-2005, 06:58 AM
mleblanca
 
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Since observing this bird doing this and later seeing it revisit and
apparently 'inspect' these same areas for tidbits of food - I tend to
think that perhaps the sapsucker is creating an inviting place of false

security for insects. Whose eggs, larva or bodies it might later come
upon and perhaps 'harvest' as food.
So perhaps the damage they apparently cause may be balanced
somehow by
them eating potentially even more 'damaging' parasitic insects? Do
keep
in mind however that I'm not an expert on this and this is just a
rather
'lay' opinion.
Perhaps now someone else will comment about their experiences?
Good luck!
- Wes/MO

Good observation, Wes.
Yes, sapsuckers will drill a small hole called a "well" in the bark.
The well fills up with sap, which attracts insects. Then the bird
returns and licks up sap and insects. Very clever!! Helathy plants
can withstand sapsucker wells.

Emilie
Nor Cal

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Old 24-02-2005, 06:15 PM
Wes Wilson
 
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mleblanca wrote:
Since observing this bird doing this and later seeing it revisit and
apparently 'inspect' these same areas for tidbits of food - I tend to
think that perhaps the sapsucker is creating an inviting place of false

security for insects. Whose eggs, larva or bodies it might later come
upon and perhaps 'harvest' as food.
So perhaps the damage they apparently cause may be balanced
somehow by
them eating potentially even more 'damaging' parasitic insects? Do
keep
in mind however that I'm not an expert on this and this is just a
rather
'lay' opinion.
Perhaps now someone else will comment about their experiences?
Good luck!
- Wes/MO

Good observation, Wes.
Yes, sapsuckers will drill a small hole called a "well" in the bark.
The well fills up with sap, which attracts insects. Then the bird
returns and licks up sap and insects. Very clever!! Helathy plants
can withstand sapsucker wells.

Emilie
Nor Cal

Hi Emilie - Hey thanks. I once lived in Lagunitas (Nor Cal?) Have a good
day! - Wes/MO

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